Rebirth and CoExisting Sequel to The Host
by BellatrixLestrange83
Summary: One day Wanda finds a young couple, who have stumbled upon the caves but one is a human the other's a soul, & they're happy that way. The woman is Mel and Sharon's childhood friend! Can Souls & humans coexist? Same pairings and Jamie/OC Read & Review!
1. Chapter 1

_This is one of my first fan fics, besides a powerpuff girls story I wrote years ago. So I'd appreciate your feedback. A appreciate constructive criticism, but please don't hate._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters and the original Host. I only own the OC's and the plot._

Chapter 1:

I woke up one morning with a sore back, because we had just gotten back from another raid the previous day. It's been at least a few months since I had been implanted in my new host… well at least I think it's been a few months anyway. I still can never tell in these caves, days and nights just seem to fly by. I found that my new body is much for fragile than Melanie's was and it's taking it awhile to adjust to this new physical activity the raids demand of it, still I have grown just as attached to this body because for once I feel like it's mine! The previous host never came back around, which made it easier to accept this new body as opposed to my original instructions that I gave to Doc. I sat up in my bed and rubbed my eyes and cracked, I looked down at the beautiful man sleeping next to me, his arms still molded in the position for when I was lying in them. I couldn't help but giggle to myself, when he started to stir. Ian opened his eyes and blinked, then when he saw me gazing at me, he smiled sat up and started stroking my long golden locks of hair.

"Good morning angel," he said as he pulled me towards him a soft passionate kiss.

I closed my eyes breathing in his intoxicating scent, and whispered, "Good morning my handsome prince." My previous host had always been into fantasy stories, and princes and princesses since she was a young girl. I sighed, "You know I don't think I could ever get used to these mornings, they are always a surprise to me."

"Then don't," he said with a smirk, and he playfully pulled me on top of him.

"Ian!" I exclaimed, "We don't have time for this, we have lots of chores we have to do today! Jeb is expecting us in the game room in half an hour!"

"Great! That gives us more time that I thought,"

I sighed and rolled my eyes. He kissed me again, and then started to pull off my pajama top when we heard someone clear his throat. I looked over and saw Jamie, Melanie and Jared standing in the doorway.

I squealed, pulled my shirt back down and jumped off the bed and could feel my cheeks turn bright red.

"I er… hoped we didn't interrupt anything." Jared said with a smirk. Melanie covered Jamie's innocent eyes, while trying to stifle a giggle. Jamie pulled quickly away from Melanie.

"Hey! Stop treating me like a kid, it's not like I've never seen this kind of thing before!" Melanie gaped at him, where had he seen this type of thing that she did not know about. Ian interrupted her thoughts quickly.

"Hey what's the big idea, didn't your mother teach you to knock Howe?"

"Awe, but there's no need to knock when your screen is wide open Oshea," Jared replied smugly.

"Huh?" Ian responded, "But we always make sure our screen's closed." It was then that I realized that coming back from the raid, I was so exhausted I just threw myself down on the bed and forgot to shut it.

"Oops! That would be my fault, I was just sooo tired last night I guess I just fell asleep and forgot to close the screen. Ian was already asleep when I came in." I said sheepishly.

Melanie busted up laughing, "Well it was good that all you did last night was sleep, otherwise we'd all be in for an entertaining show." At that remark, I did the most violent thing I think I'm ever capable of; I kicked her in the shin. As much as I love her as a new sister and best friend, she had her moments, where the part of her that stuck with me would sometimes be released. "Ouch! Wanda, I never thought you capable! Anyways, believe it or not, there was a purpose for us stopping by; Doc wanted your help with some of the new Souls we captured yesterday. He said it could wait until after breakfast, I was thinking we could just eat in the hospital wing since we're picking him up some food any, but we wanted to know what you wanted to do."

I saw that Ian had already gotten dressed, but I have always been one for privacy. "That's fine, just give me a few minutes to get dressed and I'll go with you all.

*****

Within the last couple months we had successfully extracted 15 more souls growing our number from about 37 to 52 new residents in our cave. Unfortunately, the ratio of success rates, to the number of hosts killed in the process, was about one host for every three survived. Doc, however distraught he was over the deaths, still kept his promise of preserving the souls inside and sent them each to planets that suited their preferences. By now I no longer feel guilty about revealing our secret, because I know now in the end I've done the right thing. Although it is looked down upon in our world for our species to "skip" hosts, at least my family members are still protected. Maybe as a result they can see that humans aren't the violent monsters we had originally perceived them to be by sparing their lives.

It ended up by just being Melanie, Sunny and me heading to the hospital wing since Jeb assigned the men to do other needed chores. When we got outside the entrance, we saw Sharon leaving with an empty tray that clearly had food on it at one point. It was comforting to know that her and Doc had pretty much patched up their relationship regardless of the fact she despises Sunny and me. I still can't help but feel happy for them. It's just in my nature to want the best for others. When Sharon saw us coming, she smiled at Melanie, which Melanie returned with a slight scowl. Melanie still hadn't really forgiven Sharon or Maggie for the months in which they had been so rude to me. Sharon disregarded Melanie's sign of displeasure towards her and offered to take the tray Melanie intended for Doc.

"It's alright, maybe after the person wakes up, they might be hungry," Melanie said coldly.

"Ok then, I never thought about that, sounds like a good idea. I guess it would be better that to let it go to waste." Sharon was awkwardly rocking back on her feet, it was clear she was trying to make good conversation with her cousin. Sharon started to head off, she glanced at Sunny and I and I was half expecting either a scowl or just a realization that we were even present, but instead she gave what could be perceived as a hint of a tiny smile, "By the way can we talk later?" I was expecting her to talk to Melanie, but it was directed to Sunny and me? Sunny and I nodded slowly. "Great! Lets meet in the game room after lunch, before we have to get back to work," and she continued to walk off in her normal haughty fashion. The three of us looked at each other confused. I felt my jaw drop, Sunny just looked casual, she was still very naïve to how some of the others perceived people like us.

It was Melanie, who spoke next, "What was that about?" I shrugged as we entered the hospital wing. Doc was closing up a patient's wound, and decided to give the other body another dose of medicine to keep them from waking up. He smiled when he saw us walk in.

"You're a lot earlier, than I expected! No matter, Wanda, I need your help with this one particular patient," he gestured to a third hospital bed with a girl close to about Jamie's age lying near the far corner. "I've been trying to get her to wake up, but she's been out for 2 days now, and I was hoping that maybe you could help, since you've found a way to revive people who have even been under an entire week. I would have continued trying, but I'm also trying to revive her parents. I just healed her mother, perhaps you can try to get her to wake as well."

"I'll see what I can do, but like every time before, I can't make any guarantees." I first walked over to the girl and peered into her face. She had very fair skin and beautiful long white blond hair, but her eyes were a bright piercing shade of blue. She had an athletic build, yet she was very slender and petite at the same time. We could use more people like her in our soccer games. I whispered so that only she could hear me, "You don't have to be afraid, I am one of the souls but I am also a friend. I only want to help you. I want you to come back to us." The girl remained still. "I'm going to try to guess your name ok? Is it Sarah?" No response, "Jessica? Jennifer? Haley? Nicole?" No response.

"I've already tried to guess her name nothing happened," Doc said from beside his patient.

"Ok, I'll try a different approach. Do you remember your father and mother? Doc is trying to bring them back as well." As soon as I said this, I noticed that the woman that Doc healed was starting to stir. "Doc, I think she's moving." I immediately ran over to the older woman, perhaps if I could awaken her, she'd be able to help her daughter. It was then that I noticed the woman who was sleeping was just as stunning as the girl. She had the same platinum blond hair except it was much shorter, about shoulder length and pulled back slightly, and she had the same piercing blue eyes. She looked to be in later thirties, but the age did nothing but help her appearance giving her a mature sophisticated look about her. I talked to her in the same tone of voice as her daughter, "Are you this girl's mother? We are trying to wake her up, but I need your help." The woman became more responsive. I kept talking to her until she finally opened her eyes. She took one look at me and gasped.

Doc quickly rushed over and calmed her, "It's alright, Wanda's not like the others. She's only trying help bring you back and she wants to bring your family back too." The woman furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and looked at me. I just smiled and nodded my head reassuringly. If I only had a dollar for every time I got that reaction from the hosts.

She started to speak up although her voice was a little horse, "I don't know who I'm supposed to be, or what my name is, what did you do with _it_?"

"We just put it safely in a cyrotank, and the next chance we get, we'll send that one off to another planet, just like the others," I told her.

"Others? You mean you've done this before? Do you mean it's possible to bring back human kind?" she asked, her voice mixed with skepticism, awe, and a little bit of hope.

"Well, that's what we are trying to do, although it may take years to fully accomplish this," Doc answered, then he gestured over to me, "Although, I owe a lot of gratitude to Wanda, she was the one who taught me how to do it successfully without harming the soul or the person." Again there was a look of shock on the woman's face, "As for your memories of your life prior, most people don't remember much when they first wake up, just give it some time and everything will come back to you."

"All I remember is that I have a husband and a 15 year old daughter." As she said this she sat upright, "Where is she, is she safe, did we leave her behind?"

"It's alright, she's lying over there," I said soothingly and gestured over to the bed that her daughter was laying in. "Right now just lye down, you've been through a lot, as matter of fact, maybe you can help us revive your daughter. Can you remember her name?"

The woman smiled slightly, "Her name is Destiny, the funny thing is, the parasite who inhabited her. No offense," she paused and looked at me. I smiled in understanding, before she continued, "Anyway the creature that lived in her seemed to like that name too, because it never changed."

I walked back over to Destiny and tried whispering her name, but still got no response. "Can you tell me more about your daughter, like what her likes and dislikes are?" The woman looked thoughtful.

"Yes, I remember she was always addicted to Twinkies for some strange reason. I told her they were terribly unhealthy, but she'd continue to snack on them."

As soon as she said this, I immediately looked over at Melanie and Sunny, who I just realized were still in the room watching all of this take place, but they were unsure of what they needed to do, "Hey Mel? You know where Jared hides the Twinkies, do you think that you and Sunny could grab a few?"

"Sure! Jared owes me one anyway," so her and Sunny took off.

I turned back over to the blond woman, "Maybe if you talk to your daughter, she'll wake up. She would most likely recognize her mothers voice as opposed to a stranger." The woman nodded and walked over to the girl. I turned back to doc. "How's the man we brought in?" Doc had just sealed back the wound and walked over to his desk to put the cyrotank down.

"Well, I'd have to say this has been one of the easiest, the soul almost seemed _willing_ to go on to another host. All we have to do now is wait for him to wake up." I looked over at the father, he was just as good looking as the rest of the family, although he looked like had put on a few pounds over the years. His hair was jet black with streaks of gray throughout and pulled back in a short ponytail. He started to stir almost instantly. It was then I realized that Candy, the other doctor was nowhere to be seen. "Doc, I haven't seen Candy at all today, is she alright?"

"Oh, she's fine, since today's been slow I told her that I had things under control in here, so she could ask Jeb if he needed any additional help. I also told her that if it does get busy, I'd just have her on call." I couldn't help but laugh to myself, even though Doc has extra help available, he still insisted on doing as much as could on his own. I did see Sharon in the office earlier, I was wondering if maybe he was just trying to calm her insecurities about Doc working alone with another woman. I decided not to press the issue instead I just nodded.

"Hey where am I?" I turned around and saw the man sitting up with a confused expression on his face. He saw me and gasped. The blond woman turned around.

"Sky…er I mean Brian, you're all right! She ran over to him and put her arms around him," he hesitantly hugged her back, then he saw that her eyes were back to normal and stared in awe. She pulled back still holding his hands "The woman and the doctor over there saved us!" She said pointing to Doc and I.

"But she's one of them! How can this be?" He asked.

"I don't even understand it either to be completely honest with you. All I know is that she helped us and she's trying to bring back our daughter," he looked at Destiny who was still under. "So how can we _not_ trust her?" She looked over at me and smiled. He looked over at me too and smiled slightly, then together they both walked over to Destiny, and tried talking to her.

A few minutes later Melanie walked in with about 7 Twinkies. My jaw dropped.

"Where did you find all those?" Doc asked amazed.

"Lets just say that Jared sucks at hiding stuff from me," Melanie said with a smirk.

"You've been holding out on me!" I exclaimed pretending to be hurt. "What happened to Sunny?" I asked when I noticed that Melanie came back alone.

"She saw Kyle working in the plantation area and wanted to help him," Melanie rolled her eyes.

"Why am I not surprised?" I laughed. Just then I had movement over in the far corner.

"Did someone say Twinkies?" The voice was soft and feminine, and very tired sounding, "I'm super hungry. How long have I been sleeping for?" I turned around, and saw that the beautiful young teenager had finally woken up. Her parents were ecstatic and sandwiched her in a huge hug. "Love you too! Can't breath!" She muffled. Then they pulled away, and looked at us.

"I can't thank you enough!" The woman said with tears in her eyes.

Melanie, Doc and I walked towards them. Doc figured introductions would be good "Melanie, you sort of already met…"

"Geraldine," the father spoke up, "We normally call her Geri for short." The blond woman looked like she was now starting to regain parts of her older memories, "And this is our daughter, Destiny, and I guess my name is Brad, although I'm still a bit hazy."

Melanie, Doc and I shook everyone's hand, "I mainly go by Doc around here, if you knew my real name you'd understand why," he laughed, "And this is Melanie and you've all met Wanda. It's a pretty crazy story how Wanda ended up here with us, but I would trust her with my life. We have only one other soul living with us, and her name is Sunny. The original person that lived in both of their bodies never returned." Brad nodded in understanding. Melanie passed around the Twinkies.

"Melanie, why did you grab seven Twinkies if there are only six of us?" I asked.

"I figured Jamie might want one later," She said, "So I thought I'd give him one for desert after lunch." The remainder of the time was spent getting to know the new family; each was helping to remember certain parts, although none of them could recall all of the events that passed when the souls inhabited their bodies. Doc shared told them more what life was like here in the caves, and Melanie and I took turns telling them our story about how I once inhabited Melanie's body and how she refused to allow herself to be erased and how we are now closer than sisters. It was actually a pretty amazing story thinking back on it. Then Jeb finally entered the room to announce that lunch was ready.

"Wow! I can see you guys have been having somewhat of a powwow in here!" he said, a wide grin on that bearded face of his, "After lunch, I'm going to have to give you three the grand tour of the place, and explain the procedures, and the rules because…"

"It's your place and you make the rules around her." Doc, Melanie and I all said at the same time rolling our eyes. Jeb chuckled, and pointed to the three of us, "See they know how it works!"

We all followed him out of the hospital wing and over to the mess hall. Jeb was pointing things out to the new family as we walked.

_So that's the first chapter. It will get more interesting I promise. There is a reason why I put that family in the story, but they won't be too big of characters. Let me know what you think._


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks for the reviews! Sorry it's taken me awhile to post this Chapter, I've been out of town two weekends in a row to the snow. I had an awesome time at both! Hopefully it won't take me as long to write the next chapter._

_Also, I promise most of the OC's in this story are primarily extras, I do however have a few new characters that will have significant rolls, but for the most part I'll try to stay true to the book by keeping Melanie and Wanda the central Characters._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters and the original Host. I only own the OC's and the plot._

Chapter 2:

By the time we got to the Dining Hall, it seemed as if everyone else was breaking for lunch as well. I searched the crowded room for Ian and found him sitting in our usual spot with Jared, Jamie, Kyle, Sunny and the rest of the gang. Ian saw me right away and walked with me over to the kitchen. Melanie headed over as well with Jared at her side. I smelled the appetizing aroma that flooded the kitchen, and knew we were in for a special treat. We were having tri-tip sandwiches with Luciana's special BBQ sauce on toasted garlic bread. My mouth was already watering. I looked over at the table and saw that Jamie had two of them on his plate, but his mouth wasn't watering over the sandwiches. I noticed that he was eying Destiny who was standing in line behind us with her mother and father. Destiny had seen him as well, blushed and quickly looked the other way. I couldn't help but giggle to myself, wondering what Mel would think of the situation. Melanie was very protective over her little brother. After we all grabbed our food, Ian and I sat across from Melanie, Jared and Jamie. Kyle and Sunny sat on our left, and on our right sat Lily and Heidi. The rest of the group filled our table.

Brian, Geri and Destiny were still getting their food when Jamie casually asked, "Are they a new family that will be staying here?"

I nodded, after swallowing my first bite I added, "I think they are the first full family we were able to successfully save. The man is named Brian and his wife is Geraldine, but everyone calls her Geri, and their daughter's name is Destiny."

Jamie nodded slowly not taking his eyes off of Destiny. At that moment, the new family sat down at our table next to Jeb. Destiny gave Jamie a slight smile, but remained focused on what Jeb was saying, meanwhile Destiny's father gave Jamie a stern look. Jamie, looking taken aback, immediately turned his attention back to the delicious food in front of him and took a huge bite.

I looked around the room and noticed that Sharon and Doc were sitting a few tables behind us. Sharon as usual wasn't looking in our direction, however it seemed for once Sunny and I weren't the reason. Perhaps it was the hamster wheels in my head from the conversation with her earlier, trying to convince me that she didn't hate me anymore, (wishful thinking on my part I'm sure.) I wasn't about to let my guard down around her yet. It also seemed that the reason was because she was very attentive to Doc, as if there was nobody else in the room besides the two of them. It's funny how after those bitter months of not speaking to Doc, and finally reconciling their differences, it's like she had actually fallen in love with him again or maybe for the first time. Doc on the other hand looked like he was on cloud nine, because regardless of how coldly she acts towards him or whether she returned his feelings, I knew he was completely devoted to her. It was very heartwarming to see Doc so happy. It was like things were as they should be in the caves. I looked for Maggie, and she was sitting a few feet away from them. I thought that was kind of strange even for Maggie, considering that it seemed like ever since I had come into the caves, Maggie and her daughter were joined at the hip. This time, Maggie looked kind of annoyed about something, but then again that was nothing new, although I don't think I was the cause this time. At that moment Maggie caught my eye and did not disappoint me with her signature scowl saved specially for me. I looked down and saw the delicious tri-tip sandwich in front of me and remembered how hungry I was. I took a bite of the sandwich and as soon as the sauce, the meat and the bread hit my taste buds, it was as if I just took a bite of heaven, at the moment all of my present worries melted away into the sandwich.

"It's nice to see you eating something!" Ian said putting his arm around me interrupting my thoughts. If I wasn't completely head over heals for the guy, I could have smacked him for interrupting my moment if I had any violence in me at all. "I don't like seeing you so thin, you need some meat on your bones," he teased pinching my arm.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Very funny!" I said leaning into his strong shoulders. "But that's what I got you for!"

"So, uh how about after lunch we take off where we first started this morning." He whispered seductively into my ear kissing the side of my neck in between each sylable. After he said that, I felt very hot inside the crowded room and my body felt like jelly. At that moment I wanted lunch to be over just so that I could be with Ian in private, and then I suddenly remembered that Sharon had wanted to tell me something after lunch. I pulled away gently.

"Ian, you have no idea how much I want to you to just sweep me off the table right now, but I just remembered I was supposed to go meet with Sharon after lunch."

Ian's mouth dropped, "Why in the world would you want to meet with her? She's been a complete bitch to you since the moment she first saw you!"

"I know, but that's the thing, I think she may have had a change of heart," Ian raised his eyebrows and looked skeptical, so I continued. "This morning Melanie, Sunny and I were heading over to the hospital wing with some extra food for Doc, and to do some work, when we saw Sharon leaving the office. She saw me, and said she wanted to talk about something with me, and for once she wasn't scowling at me. She actually gave a tiny smile almost."

"I don't know, do you think it's possible you may be reading more into it then was really there? I mean how is someone going to treat you like crap for a long period of time and then all of a sudden be nice? How does that work? I mean how do you know it's not a trick to try to harm you or something?"

I looked down, "I don't, but there was just something about her whole mannerism this morning that didn't seem like her, for example she looked nervous and awkward, normally she appears very confident and sure of herself. Anyways, regardless of whether she's changed or not I'm at least curious to hear what she has to say."

Ian sighed, "I still think it seems kind of fishy to me."

I kissed him lightly on the cheek, "Thanks for always being so understanding. If you'd like I'll tell you everything that happens. Ok?"

Ian nodded, he couldn't argue with that.

"Ha ha! Sucks for you Oshea! Looks like I'm going to be the only one getting some action." Jared smirked with his arms squeezed around Melanie across from us. Ever since I had left Melanie's body, Jared hadn't let go of her, or let her out of his site for too long. Part of him was still carrying feelings of guilt for the way he abandoned her emotionally when we arrived to the caves, and guilty for not believing she would return to him. Melanie had privately told me this after she came back in full control of her body. When Melanie became conscious, Jared immediately started sobbing and kept apologizing over and over to her. Although Melanie had already forgiven him while I was inside of her, and she didn't blame him for how she acted, I guess he now felt like he needed to make up for lost time by being with her as much as he could.

Melanie and Jared kissed passionately on the lips, and then Melanie pulled away. She patted his knee lightly, "Actually babe, I was planning on going with Wanda and Sunny to talk to Sharon. You know, just in case it might be a trap? Wanda may be quick to forgive and forget, but I am not."

Jared nodded, but looked just as disappointed as Ian, "I guess that would be the smart thing to do."

I wasn't sure when exactly after lunch Sharon wanted to talk, so I looked back at her table to see if she had left yet. It looked like her and Doc just finished and were getting up from the table. She was looked around the dining hall, until her eyes made contact with mine. She nodded to me, then turned to Doc and whispered something to him. Doc nodded, squeezed her hand then Sharon left the Dining Hall and Doc proceeded back to the direction of the Hospital wing. I looked over at Melanie, and as if she could read my mind, (I laughed to myself as I thought of the pun) she cleaned up her spot and pulled Sunny away from Kyle, then headed over in my direction and we headed off to the game room.

It only took us a matter of minutes to get there, and we saw Sharon waiting for us in the entranceway again looking uncharacteristically nervous, pacing back and forth. When she saw us coming, she gestured for us to follow her inside. There was a tan couch and a flowery loveseat facing each other at the back of the wall with a small coffee table in the middle. Sharon sat down in the loveseat, and Sunny and I hesitantly took a seat in the couch facing her. Sunny looked like she had no idea what was going on.

Melanie on the other hand remained standing with her hands on her hips. "Ok Sharon, what is it you want?"

Sharon sighed, "Well, I was expecting to talk to just talk to these two," she said pointing to Sunny and I, "but I'm glad you're here too, because that way I won't have to repeat myself when I would talk to you too. Please sit down with us, Mel. You don't have to sit next to me, you can sit with Wanda and Sunny if you'd like."

"First of all, you have no right to call me Mel after the way you've behaved, and I'd prefer to stand thank you very much."

"Please won't you sit down? It makes me nervous. This is already going to be hard for me as it is," She pleaded.

Melanie rolled her eyes and sat down in between Sunny and I making her present very known.

Sharon looked down at her feet, "Look, I don't really know how to start this, because it's just very hard for me to express myself verbally and I hope you can understand this." She then looked directly at both Sunny and I. "First of all, I just really want nothing more than to apologize to both you and Sunny. How I've treated you guys has been inexcusable, especially to you, Wanda. You have done nothing, but help improve the quality of life here in the caves. I have never met anyone more selfless, caring, and compassionate in my entire existence. You've saved Jamie's life. You work harder than anyone else in this place with the exception of Jeb, Melanie and Jared. You even saved the life of the person who had attempted to kill you! And after you came back from the first raid, I knew somehow deep inside that you would never betray us, even before you left. And Sunny, I'm sorry for how I've treated you as well. You never even did anything to me to cause me reason to dislike you."

All three us went wide-eyed. Never did we expect to see this coming. Being the naturally forgiving creature that I am, I wanted to go over and give Sharon a hug and tell her that I understood, and that I forgave her. Well maybe the hug part was pushing it for me. I still had somewhat of a guard up. Anyway I didn't get to yet because Melanie spoke up first.

"So then my question to you is, if you knew Wanda wasn't a threat and she was all of those wonderful things that you just claimed. Why then did you persist to treat us, I mean her, like crap?"

Now it was Sharon's turn to be in shock, a look of realization appeared on her face. "I thought it would be obvious to _you _Mel." Melanie just stared at her blankly and Sharon sighed again, "Ok, I know this may be difficult, but see if you can try to understand things from my perspective. Growing up, we used to be very close, I mean I considered you one of my best friends, and after everyone had been taken over by their kind, you were one of the few people left that I knew of and until we found the caves, you were my only friend besides my mom and Uncle Jeb. Then when I saw you come into the caves, all I could think was, my best friend was gone and this was the parasite that did it." She looked over at me apologetically. "My mother grieved as well. She cared about you very much Mel, like a second daughter. At that point, I couldn't trust Wanda to not turn us in to the seekers. All we wanted was for you to just go. It was too painful to see Wanda in your body. Then I had heard that there was possibility that you were still alive in there and that infuriated me even more, because Wanda could see you weren't going anywhere, yet she refused to leave your body and you were left imprisoned inside your mind. It didn't matter how much good Wanda did, all I could see was that she had my cousin prisoner, and was still selfish enough to stay. Don't you see Melanie? I have always been on your side, and my mom and I were only trying to protect you! I had thought you were gone! I had no idea how close you and Wanda had become, because all I could see was that you were prisoner. I can see now that, all those months when I was rejecting Wanda, I was rejecting you as well, and all I've managed to do was destroy our relationship." At that moment Sharon burst into tears with her head in her hands.

It was clear Melanie was still trying to process everything Sharon had just told her, but this time, the hard look on Melanie's face softened, and she put her hand on Sharon's shoulder and asked quietly, "So why the change of heart, and why are you waiting until now to apologize?"

Sharon took a deep breath, tears still streamed down her face, "Do you want do know the truth?" Melanie nodded.

_So the second chapter has now been completed! Don't worry, the next chapter won't take as long to post. I decided to patch up Melanie and Sharon's relationship because in the book, there wasn't much closure on that subject. I also figured there'll be plenty of drama later on in the story. Please read and review!_


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks for the reviews! By the way, in the last chapter, that was a typo, I meant "he" instead of "she" thanks TK-MR for being kind enough to point that out ____._

_For those reading this for the first time, most of the OC's in this story are primarily extras, I do however have a few new characters that will have significant rolls, but for the most part I'll try to stay true to the book by keeping Melanie and Wanda the central Characters._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters and the original Host. I only own the OC's and the plot._

Chapter 3:

Sharon looked up, tears still streamed down her face, "Do you want do know the truth?" Melanie nodded. She took a deep breath before continuing. "It was when Doc told me what Wanda was originally planning to do. It was at that moment I knew she wasn't like the other Souls. I just couldn't fathom how she would be willing to sacrifice her own life just so that you could have your own life back. I mean…that's just…unnatural for any species. I don't even think _I _would be willing to give up my life for anybody else, well maybe with the exception of Doc, and even then, I still can't say for sure. Anyway, I knew I had terribly misjudged her, and I felt really guilty for being such a … bitch to her. I couldn't have her death on my conscious and I knew I had to do something to save her. I suggested to Doc that he would come up with some alternative way to save her, either to send her back to a new planet or find a body where there is no chance of the original host ever being able to return."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was _Sharon's _idea to place me in a new host? I suddenly felt my mouth drop as she said this. Then I remembered how Doc and Sharon were being so loving towards one another at the lunch table and it dawned on me that maybe that incident was all that was needed to heal Sharon and Doc's relationship.

She continued her story, "I told Doc not to let anyone know it was my idea, especially my mother, because I'll admit, my mom is a very closed minded person. She's always been that way, even before the souls took over. Mel, you know this. Could you imagine the betrayal she would have felt if she knew that I was accepting Sunny and Wanda to live with us? Which is part of the reason it's taken me so long to try to clear the air. Then after Wanda had her new body, I realized I no longer had any reason to despise her." She looked over at me again and smiled, "besides, you look so innocent and harmless in your new body, and then knowing what type of character you have, it's virtually impossible _not _to like you. I no longer see you as a threat."

Finally I was able to find the words that I had been meaning to say, "Thank you, Sharon, that really means a lot to me, for you to say that, and I had no idea that it was your idea to place me inside a new host. I would have thought you would have at least sent me off to another planet. I understand the reasons for your actions and I forgive you for it, I mean, like I said before, I have now realized that my brothers and sisters have made a huge mistake trying to take over your world."

Melanie then spoke up again, "So you said that not wanting to betray Maggie was only part of the reason you waited so long to apologize, what was the other reason?"

Sharon took a deep breath and simply said, "Because, I've been carrying around a lot of guilt for the way I behaved. Like I said earlier, I could see how close you and Wanda had gotten, almost like sisters, and part of me felt slightly jealous. I feel like missed on so much time getting to know Wanda and being able to catch up with you Mel. I was also afraid that neither of you would want to talk to me after the way I've been behaving, and after seeing Wanda alive in her new body, I was completely overwhelmed with guilt that I couldn't bring myself to look her in the eyes. And then of course my mom is so stubborn, I don't think there is anything I can say or do to change her mind about Sunny and Wanda. I think she's kind of irritated with me right now for even suggesting that we just accept that they aren't a threat."

I think Melanie was at a loss for words because she couldn't think of any way to respond. Instead, she just nodded her head in understanding.

"So, is there any slight chance that we could all like, you know, start over and try to be friends?" As she said this, she looked over at Sunny and I.

"Like I said, I forgive you and I can't blame you for wanting to protect your kind, so it would be wrong for me to hold that against you," I smiled warmly.

Sharon looked over at Sunny, "How about you Sunny?"

"Of course I forgive you! I couldn't even tell you were being rude to me, I don't yet understand completely these human emotions or how they work, so I guess I have no hard feelings." With that said, she jumped up off the couch and gave Sharon a hug. Sharon looked a little surprised but returned the hug.

Sharon looked up at her cousin, "Mel?"

Melanie sighed, and rolled her eyes, "Well I guess since Wanda and Sunny forgive you, I guess I have no other choice but to forgive you. However, it's going to take me awhile to be able trust you again like I did before, but I guess I did miss you a little." It was heartwarming to see the two cousins hug and reunite. Tears were streaming down both of their faces as they were crying and laughing at the same time. Then Sharon held her arms out for both Sunny and I to join them and let's just say it was a giant emotional tear fest.

Just then, we heard someone whistle, "That's hot!" It was Kyle standing in the entranceway, "Can I join y'all? I would love to get in on some girl on girl action!"

Sunny rolled her eyes at him and threw a couch pillow at him, "Kyle, you can be such a perv! We were just having a very deep, personal conversation and got a little emotional."

"You're calling me a perv?" Kyle asked innocently, "whatever could you be talking about?" He walked over and scooped up Sunny in his arms. "Anyway, I was told to come find you guys, Jeb wants us to get back to work."

"Where are Jared and Ian?" Melanie asked.

"In the fields, which is where you, Sunny and Wanda are assigned. And Sharon, Jamie's going to miss class today."

Sharon's eyes furrowed, "And why is that? He seemed perfectly healthy this morning." She hated it when kids missed class unnecessarily. It made things more difficult for her, which meant more work for her to do.

Kyle was having a hard time controlling his laughter, "because Jeb thought it would be a good idea to let Jamie help him out with touring the new family."

Sharon put her hands on her hips, "I don't know what you find so funny about that! He's already a little behind in his Calculus! I swear sometimes I just want to slap some sense into Uncle Jeb!" Then she grumbled "taking my students out of class to give silly little tours. Oh it's my place, I make the rules around her." She mimicked his expressions as she grumbled. Sunny and I giggled a little at this.

"I'm sorry, I just think it's funny because didn't you see that little blond girl that was with him? I'm willing to bet that he only offered to guide the tour, so that he could hook up with the new girl later."

Now Melanie stepped in, "Oh he better not try to 'hook up' with anyone! I thought I taught him better than that!"

Now Kyle was really busting up in laughter, "I don't mean like that kind of hook-up! I'm just saying he kinda fancies her."

"Yea, well I'm going to have a good talk with both him and Jeb later!" Melanie said, "Oh my god, I just sounded like my mother just now. Slap me if I start talking like that again, ok? I guess Jamie's old enough now to start dating, but all I gotta say is he better be taking things slow, or I _will _have a little chat with him."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about Mel, he's too much of a respectful person to try anything," I reassured her. So we all walked out of the game room towards our job sites, when Sharon stopped.

"Hey wait up guys, you know I was thinking. Er… I know that teaching has been primarily my job most of the time, but I've had a difficult time teaching some subjects. I was wondering if possibly, on some days you might want to teach the history portion? Not human History, but the History of the Souls and where you guys come from… I know this may be a stretch, but believe it or not, I have heard you teach it to the adults and I believe you'd be able to make history much more interesting than I can. What do you say?"

I thought about it for a moment, "Do you think that would be alright with Jeb?"

Kyle shrugged, "Sure, I mean in my opinion we have way too many people working the fields today anyway. Besides, wasn't Jeb the one to originally encourage you to share your experiences with us?" Melanie and Sunny nodded in agreement.

I looked at Sharon, "Ok then, that sounds like it might be fun."

Sharon jumped up and down excitedly, "Oh my gosh! I really appreciate that! With you teaching, maybe the kids will stay awake and pay attention for once."

Melanie, Sunny and Kyle headed off for the fields, while Sharon and I headed for the classrooms. I had to admit, I was feeling a bit nervous, which was kind of ironic considering the fact that I had been teaching adults, one would think kids would be much easier right?

"So how often do you want me to teach?"

Sharon stopped walking and thought for a second, "Lets try every other day, since I doubt that you're familiar enough with our history to be able to teach it." I shook my head. "I think it's still important that they continue to learn World History in addition to your history since both are very relevant. On the days you're not teaching, you can just do your usual chores with Mel, and everybody."

"Ok, that works for me!" We continued down the passageway in silence. I was glad to know that there was some kindness and compassion in Sharon after all. It was still very awkward going from mortal enemies, to "bffs," the term human teenagers have come up with during the text message era.

When we got to the classroom, I felt even more nervous seeing all of the familiar kids staring up at me. It was almost the same feelings as when I was first brought into the caves only this time it was a much friendlier environment. I looked to the back of the room and saw that Jamie and Destiny were back in class. Jamie was sitting right next to her of course. Destiny smiled when she saw me come in, but she looked just as nervous as I was. I returned the smile. When Jamie saw Sharon and I walk in together, he had a confused expression on his face. He certainly wasn't expecting this. Sharon walked up to the front of the class and gestured for me to follow her.

"Class, I have a very special guest with me today. I'm sure most of you already know Wanda pretty well."

"I know her! She's that soul person who tells the really cool stories!" Freedom shouted out from the middle of the class.

"You are correct! And I'm glad that you could join us today, Jamie," She said with an eyebrow raised, "Kyle said that were helping Jeb out with the tour and wouldn't make it back to my class."

"Jeb and I pretty much showed them everything, so he made -er… _let_ me go back to class," he said with the most charming-buttering-up-the-teacher kind of smile.

"And it also looks like we have a new student with us," she said looking over at the pretty blond girl, "Would you like to tell us all your name and a little about yourself?"

Destiny looked back at Jamie nervously, and Jamie nodded his head reassuringly. She cleared her throat, "My name is Destiny, and I just arrived to the caves with my parents. I don't really know what to tell you all, because I can't remember much about my life before the souls got to my family and I. A little bit is coming back here and there, but most of it is still a blur. I was very young when my mind was inhabited. My family and I owe Wanda a lot of gratitude, she's not like other souls I can see," she smiled and nodded towards me.

Sharon smiled then turned towards me, "Thank you for sharing with us, Destiny. So as you all know I brought Wanda in here as a guest, but what I didn't yet tell you is that she is actually going to help me teach the class." The room was full of excited chatter amongst the students. I saw Jamie grinning ear to ear. It was very encouraging to me and took away some of my fear. "Between the two of us, we decided that it would work best if she came in every other day to teach you about her life as a soul, and the history of her kind. I feel it's important to learn about them since they are living on our planet. The other days I will continue to teach you about our world's history, since that is equally important. How do you guys feel about that?"

The whole class cheered after that.

Sharon stepped back in surprise then turned to me and said quietly, "Well, it looks like the whole class approves. I have to say though; you got a much better response then when I first announced that I'd be teaching the classes. I'm a little jealous," she said with a smirk and I knew she was kidding. "The class is all yours."

"How should I begin?"

Sharon shrugged, "I don't know, how did you begin when you were teaching the adults?"

I put my finger under my lips to think for a moment, "Well it was a much different environment at the time, it just kind of started like a conversation because people, primarily Jeb asked me questions."

Sharon looked thoughtful, "Then maybe you should start this class the same way. You know, whatever is comfortable for you."

"Ok, that sounds reasonable." I turned to the class, "Well you heard what Sharon said already, and I'm going to teach you some of the history of the Soul species. I'll talk about my experiences on other planets and how they differ from here. I have to say, out of all of the different hosts I've been in, humans are by far the most complicated! Don't you agree?" Some of the students laughed. "I mean, you guys have so many different thoughts, feelings and emotions, some brought on by different hormones and genetics. I still have a hard time keeping them in control." I giggled in my new host's signature girly laugh. "Before I begin, how much about us do you already know?"

Different hands shot up with some random facts, some were true, and others were common stereotypes and myths. Some were completely off the wall. I could tell which student's parents had not attended my sessions. I noticed that Jamie's hand would tend to shoot up more than the others, because he was the most knowledgeable. He also had an advantage over everyone else, because he's practically as much my younger brother, as he is Mel's and he knows most of my stories from the amount of time we've spent together. "Jamie, nobody likes a know-it-all," I teased.

The rest of the class time was mostly a question and answer time, which was fine for now, but I decided that my future classes would be more planned out and structured. As I spoke on the different topics relating to my kind, I watched for Sharon's reaction and saw that she too was interested in what I had to say. Instead of having a look of disgust and distaste whenever I answered controversial questions, she looked thoughtful, like she too was trying to piece everything together like a puzzle. It was still a shock to me how much it had appeared that her attitude towards me had changed in what seemed like only a matter of minutes. I just kept telling myself, she was probably just trying to appease her cousin by being nice to me. "In a matter of no time, she'll probably be back to the same usual self, pretending I don't exist." The lack of conflict and drama did bring me peace regardless of how temporary it will be.

_So this chapter is now complete! I know it gets a little mushy in the middle, but what can I say, us girls get emotional! What did you think of the twist in the story about Wanda's transplant? By the way I returned the Host book back to the friend who loaned it to me, so please let me know if I'm missing any characters or I'm getting them wrong so I can fix it. My goal is to try to keep it accurate._

_Again please read and review!_


	4. Chapter 4

_Thanks for the reviews! Keep em coming. Sorry it's taken me awhile to post. There were some points of writer's block and this is the longest chapter I've written so far._

_For those reading this for the first time, most of the OC's in this story are primarily extras, I do however have a few new characters that will have significant rolls, but for the most part I'll try to stay true to the book by keeping Melanie and Wanda the central Characters._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters and the original Host. I only own the OC's and the plot._

Chapter 4:

Class finally ended and I felt exhausted, but very much encouraged by the experience. I found that I actually enjoyed teaching the kids more than the adults. Their questions were lot more simple, well with the exception of the teenagers, but overall, I really enjoyed connecting with them. Sharon noticed as well, after the kids left, she smiled and patted my back.

"I think you have found your calling."

"It was a lot easier than I thought," I admitted.

"Well the more time you spend with them, the easier it will get. Soon you'll find that the challenge is keeping them awake or at least getting them to paying attention, but you shouldn't have any problems with that. You're teaching them something new, that they haven't heard hundreds of times." I simply nodded. Together we headed towards the classroom exit, "Well I'm going to go see Doc for a bit, you should probably go wash up, and I think dinnertime should be in an hour."

"Oh my gosh! Already? I can't even tell if it's dark outside!"

Sharon laughed, "Yea, I have to admit, I still get confused by times and dates here." She gave me a half hug then left to find Doc.

The hot springs felt very soothing after this long crazy day, although the cactus soap still burned like crazy. I was still trying to process all of the day's events. First of course was the new family becoming free and joining the caves. As great as it was, it no longer surprised me, because that kind of thing had become somewhat a routine. However, watching Jamie become smitten over the daughter in the family was new to me. It further brought me to the realization that Jamie was no longer a little boy, and that was something both Melanie and I would have to get used to, although I imagine it must be even harder for Mel, since she's his real sister. Speaking of Mel, since I've been in my new body, I felt kinda lonely not hearing her voice interrupt my thoughts, as ridiculous as that sounded. I'd have to say that the topper today was Sharon's change of attitude towards me, and never in a million years would I have suspected that she would actually allow _me _to help teach her class. I was so enwrapped in my thoughts, that I didn't hear Ian come in.

"Mind if I join you?" He purred into my ear.

Immediately Goosebumps went through my body. I found that Ian now had the same effect on me that Jared had in what seemed like decades ago. The difference was that the feelings with Ian were much stronger and more intense. I think it was because I knew Ian was completely mine, and he loved _me _not just the body I inhabited. With Jarred, he never fully belonged to me, and I was never his. He was Melanie's and she was the one he pined after. Had we never separated, I would have only been a body to him, a sick means of connection between the two of them. I looked over at Ian and smiled. I wrapped my arms around him. "Is that what you want?"

Ian rolled my eyes, "I asked _you _first."

I giggled, I found some sort of sick humor with finding pleasure in how annoyed he'd get when I would neglect my own wants and desires, "Babe, I think you already know what I want." At that I pulled him into a passionate kiss, until we were both gasping for air.

"Wow! So does mean, you want to continue where we left off this morning?" He asked with a smirk.

I nodded my head and giggled, and at that moment I just totally tackled him and pulled him under the water with me. Never did I ever imagine that I could be so forward and aggressive, even when I was in Mel's body. This must have been the way Pet would act, or maybe I really was this way, and it was Mel holding me back.

***

I wasn't sure how long Ian and I had gone at it, but when we got to the Dinning Hall, we found that we had gotten there just in time. People were already cleaned up and filling the tables. We walked over to the kitchen and Trudy served us a tray of food. It wasn't as mouthwatering as lunch, but it still smelled wonderful. Either that, or Ian and I worked up quite an appetite. I couldn't help but smirk at that thought. Dinner was rather simple, a bowl of Clam Chowder served in sour dough bread bowls. Lucina was on this health kick about serving lighter meals at nighttime and leaving breakfast and lunch to be the bigger meals.

Ian and I took our seats next to Mel and Jared, and the rest of our group. Five minutes later, Trudy and Heidi joined us with their food. I noticed that Jamie was missing and I could tell Melanie was wondering the same thing. She looked over at me and raised her eyebrows. Funny, how though we were in our own bodies, it still seemed like we could read each other's thoughts.

"I have no idea where Jamie went, he left with the rest of the class, and I was…er taking a bath."

Melanie rolled her eyes, "Wanda, do you honestly think you can pull one over on me that easily? First of all, everyone knows you're a horrible liar, and if you recall we shared the same body, you can't hide anything from me. I know you weren't "bathing" alone. I don't care what you and Ian do, you're both adults. Jamie however, I do mind since technically I am his legal guardian, and he may not be a child anymore, he's still only 15 and a half. I just wish I knew where he was."

Even though I felt very much the same way she did, I had to be the reasonable one, "Look, as much I hate the idea as much as you do, he's old enough to make his own decisions. He's going to do what he wants because he has your stubbornness. All we can do is trust him. Besides, he just met the girl. For all we know they could be just friends and nothing more."

As soon as I said that, I saw Jamie come over to the table, he hugged both Melanie and I.

"Wanda, your class was so awesome today! If you're teaching from now on, I guess I can actually look forward to going to class now! Destiny also thought it was very cool, she can't wait until tomorrow's class."

"Speaking of Destiny, where is she?" I asked looking around.

Jamie shrugged, "Probably still washing up, I'm going to wash up after dinner. I was hanging out with Jared talking about men stuff, you know how that is? Ok, maybe not, but you talk about chick stuff I'm sure, and I didn't have time to bathe."

Melanie sighed in relief. She then shot Jared a 'why didn't you tell me he was with you?' look. Jared just shrugged.

"Well, I promised Destiny I'd eat with her and her parents, tonight if that's ok?"

"Ok, fine! Go and ditch us," Jared sighed, then winked to show he was being sarcastic. Jamie smiled then headed over to their table.

As Jamie was about to head over to their table, Melanie called him back, "Jamie?"

"Yea sis?"

"Er…please promise me, you'll take things slow with Destiny, ok?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about" he said with a smirk.

Melanie gave him the evil eye, "Jamie! Promise me!"

Jamie rolled his eye, "Ok! Ok! Anyways, we're just friends right now. I don't even know if she _likes_ me like that." Melanie sighed in relief, then Jamie muttered under his breath, "Besides you're one to talk. Look at how you and Jared started off and you still can't keep your hands off each other."

Melanie turned three shades of pink, "Hey the first night we met, he kissed _me_ remember?" Jared snickered when she said that. Melanie shot Jared a look, "And then I kicked him in the nuts after that."

"Ok fine, but you guys still got together not long after and you were practically all over each other." Before Melanie could say another word Jamie was off. In Jamie's spot Lacey sat down in between Lily and Brandt. Lily looked slightly annoyed with the arrangement, nevertheless, she greeted her with a smile. Lacey had kind of also become an accepted new member of our group. She partly kind of maneuvered her way in, but everyone seemed to accept her for the most part, except that she was more annoying if anything. Melanie and I still didn't know what to think of Lacey because we couldn't help but think we were talking to the seeker when we looked at her. She had this obnoxious pushy way about her, and we came to realize early on that she would always try to find some excuse to complain. The single guys at our table where somehow fascinated by her. Human men still puzzled me in ways. A moment later, I saw Sharon and Doc enter the room. Maggie, as usual was nowhere to be found, I guess he had decided to take her food elsewhere. Sharon's hair was still wet, and so was Doc's I assumed that they had just gotten cleaned up. I saw Doc point over to our direction and Sharon nodded following him as they made their way over to our table. Again this was another first, I mean it was common that Doc would sit awhile and chat with us, but he was usually alone when he was with us.

"Mind if we join you guys?" Doc asked. Jared smiled and made room at the table for the two of them. Sharon came back with two trays of food for her and Doc. She smiled and sat down next to him. Everyone at the table was trying to be polite, but of course knowing how Sharon had always felt about Sunny and I, seeing her at the table brought a lot of confusion.

Everyone ate their food and tried to include them in conversation, then good ole' Lacey was the first to actually speak up, in her normal loud voice "So Sharon, it's great that you decided to join our table today!" Sharon, looking slightly awkward smiled and nodded, but Lacey continued, "Although I find it kind of funny considering the fact that I thought you hated Sunny and Wanda, what made you change your mind?" Everyone else at the table looked her curiously wondering the same thing.

It was Melanie who decided to come to her cousin's rescue. "Lacey, not that it's anybody else's business," then she said under her breath "meaning yours." "We all had a good conversation and we have cleared things up." Melanie gave her cousin a slight smile and gestured for her and Doc to have a seat. Jared and Sharon switched seats so that Sharon and Melanie could talk and Doc and Jared could talk. Sharon and Melanie spent most of the time during dinner catching up on their lives. Sharon told Melanie about what life was like living amongst the souls, pretending to fit in, and what it was like to first move into the caves with Doc, Jeb, Maggie, Jared and Jamie. She told her about how they mourned when they lost they lost Mel. Then she told us the story of how the original people in the caves found this place or more like Jeb found _them._ Doc was among them. He had come across Trudy and Geoffrey and they had heard rumors of this place. When they finally made it over to the caves, Doc had revealed that he was a highly skilled doctor. Doc was a very useful tool to them. I had learned from Sharon, that Doc was instantly attracted to her and helped her to overcome her grief. Then Doc had shared that his dream was to find a way to free human kind of the Hosts. Doc and Sharon had become really close friends through it and fell in love.

Then Melanie told Sharon the story of how she tried to avoid the implantation by her useless suicide attempt. Sharon and I both cringed.

"I remember that those vivid memories were the first memories I had ever experienced as a human," I had told her.

"That must have been awful! Now I feel even more guilty for the way I've treated you."

"Don't, there's no way you could have known, besides, the doctors chose to place me in Mel as opposed to other souls, because they knew I was stronger than the rest and could probably handle it better."

Sharon nodded, "Still, you must have been pretty traumatized after experiencing that."

Then both Mel and I took turns telling her the story of how we first hated each other and then agreed to become allies to find Mel's remaining family, primarily Jamie and Jared. Again Sharon looked remorseful remembering back to how everyone, especially her had treated us, when we first found the caves. She still listened intently to stories before hand when I had taught the university, and trying to talk to my comforter and coming up short with no solution or comfort. We both shot Lacey annoyed looks when we described the inconveniences of being stalked by my seeker. Lacey only shrugged sheepishly, as if she had any control over what her body did.

The rest of the time, Melanie and Sharon would talk about fond memories they had growing up together. They were recalling the many times they thought uncle Jeb was a total nut job, but now they realized the man was a complete genius for coming up with this place. I listened quietly, even though I remembered all of these things as well from when I was in Melanie's body, part of me felt kind of envious of what they shared. Though I lived many years, I had always been alone. I never really had a real best friend or companion, until I came to Earth.

After dinner, our group, including Sharon and Doc and everyone who participated in the raids headed over to the game room. Jamie saw that we were headed over there and he excused himself from the table he was sitting at and followed after us, Destiny decided to get up with him. Jared wanted to discuss the next raid.

"But you just got back from one!" Paige complained.

"Well babe, it's never too early to plan ahead," Andy said enthusiastically with his arm wrapped around her.

"It must be a guy thing," I said to her.

When we got to the game room, Kyle and Sunny were already there, making out on one of the couches. It had just occurred to me that I never saw them during dinner. As soon as Sunny saw us, she immediately jumped out of Kyle's arms and hid behind him. Everyone tried to pay no notice, since we all knew how shy and sensitive she was.

Jared moved to the center of the room, and looked down at some notes he wrote down. "Ok, I know a lot of you are thinking, we just got back from a raid, and I know our next raid isn't for at least another month. It has come to my attention we need to plan a little bit better. Last time, we got close to being caught. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone because there is nobody to blame. I think it had a lot to do with our circumstances. I think we took too many risks and we didn't have enough people last time. I think now that we have added freeing people from the souls as part of the raid, a good team is now vital to our missions. I need to know ahead of time everyone who wants to go, so I can start assigning duties for you to perform on the raids. Also, it will help me filter through as well. I know I said I don't blame anyone and it's true, but I also think a strong team is key. If our group becomes too large, it increases our risk of getting caught." Jared looked around and people were nodding their heads in agreement.

"Ok, with that said, I assume the same people from the last group want to go on the next raid?"

Most of the people from the last raid nodded, but Jared had to tell some of them to stay behind. Lacey, of course was one of them. She was too loud mouthed to pass as a soul and she complained too much on the trips. A few volunteered themselves to stay behind. Melanie, Ian and I were of course going on the next raid.

Jared spoke again, "Ok, it looks like we have spaces for new people to join us. Sunny, I know you're scared, but I think we could really use another host with us. You'll probably be with Wanda most of time anyway. Humans pretending to be souls are more likely to get spotted."

Sunny looked hesitantly over at Kyle, and he assured her that he'd be willing to go with her if she wanted, but she should definitely be in on the next raid. Sunny smiled slightly and agreed, but she was still terrified.

"Ok, anybody else want to volunteer?"

Melanie and I looked over as Sharon slowly raised her hand. Jared raised an eyebrow.

"Are sure about this, Honey? Who are you going to get to teach your classes?" Doc asked.

Sharon glared at him, "Look, before I even arrived to the caves I managed to blend in with the souls when I lived in Chicago. I'm pretty sure I can do it again on the raids. Besides, I have always wanted to go, but I never volunteered because I knew mom would never approve, especially when Wanda started going." She looked at me apologetically again, and it was starting to get a little annoying. At the same time, I appreciated it.

Lily volunteered to take over her classes while she was gone.

Jared shrugged, "Ok, sounds good to me. If you don't work out, we'll just tell you to stay behind next raid." Jamie and Destiny wanted to go, but Destiny was too fresh, and her parents would have never approved.

Melanie would not allow Jamie to go.

"It's not because I don't think your ready, but Sharon told me you are way behind in some of your classes. I don't want you to miss anymore class." Jamie didn't put up a fight this time. I had a sneaking suspicion it was because Destiny was staying behind.

"Ok then, I think our next team is now finalized. If there is nothing else, I guess that's pretty much it. I'll see you all around then. Meeting is adjourned," Jared said, then everyone nodded and scattered. Jared walked right over to Mel and scooped her up in his arms.

She planted a kiss on him, "I love it when you take charge like that!"

"Oh do you?" He smirked, "Wait until tonight when we're alone," he chuckled.

"I'm serious! I never realized what a gift you have for public speaking!"

Jared shrugged, "I guess I just never really think too much about it, I figured we needed a better strategy, because what had worked in the past, wasn't going to work much longer. So I needed to address it."

Melanie squeezed him tighter, "Well just the same, I was impressed!"

Jared looked at Ian, Kyle, Sunny and I and asked, "You all up for a few rounds of card games, before we go to bed?"

"Oooh! Let's play a few rounds of rummy, it's my favorite!" Sunny exclaimed.

"I'm game!" Melanie said. We all spent the remainder of the evening playing different rounds of cards, before we were all very sleepy and decided to head off to bed.

***

The next morning I woke up a little later than usual. I guess I didn't realize how late we had stayed up the night before. Ian was already dressed and ready for breakfast, before me, which was surprising. Ian saw that I was awake and smiled.

"Morning Sleepyhead!" He walked over and kissed me on the cheek, "You ready for breakfast?"

I nodded, "I think so, just give me a minute to get dressed."

"Take your time babe, I'm sorry I can't wait for you, but I actually need to meet up with Jared and Jeb early this morning. I'm already late, because I slept in a little myself. We're taking inventory today. Jeb wants to give us our instructions so that we can get started as soon as breakfast ends." He rolled his eyes. Inventory had to be one of the most tedious jobs we had to do here. I had learned that Jeb had gotten more anal, since our raids had become a lot more successful. He now insisted that we take inventory of all of our supplies after we come back from a raid as well as before our next raid. On his behalf though, we found we never had to go without, by using his system.

"Ok, have fun! I'll save you a seat at breakfast if you run late."

"Thanks! I don't know how I've lived without you!" he said. He gave me a long kiss before he headed off to find Jeb.

I walked over to the dresser drawers and pulled out an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt that I normally wore when I did the chores. I looked in the mirror and saw that my hair was a hopeless mess. I combed out all of the tangles and just threw it up in a messy bun, put on a pair of shoes and socks and out of the room in the direction of the kitchen.

I walked past the other dormitories and suddenly heard a lot of yelling coming from one of the dorms. The curiosity got the better of me and I tried to follow the sound. It led me over to Maggie's dorm, which didn't shock me to say the least. I stayed close to the wall and listened closely.

"I don't know what has come over you, Sharon, but this craziness has got to stop IMMEDIATELY! I thought you were on _my _side! How can you all of a sudden decide to start trusting those….THINGS?" Maggie shouted.

"Mother, if you would just listen to me-"

Maggie had cut her off, "I will hear none of it! It's not safe! Don't you know that when the right moment comes around, both Wanderer and Sunflower or whatever the hell her name is, anyways don't care! Whenever the right moment comes around, they would turn us in to the seekers in a heartbeat."

"Mother, you and I both know that you are being paranoid! Sunny and Wanda have had numerous opportunities to do so on the raids, but instead they have actually _saved_ some of our kind! How do you explain that?"

Maggie put her hands on her hips stubbornly, "A mere ploy to get us to trust them."

Sharon sighed and put her hands up, "I just don't understand, what would it take for you to ever trust them? How many more times to they have to prove themselves to you for you to see that they are good people?"

"_People!?_" Maggie shrieked, and then suddenly her voice got quiet, "Is it Doc?"

Sharon looked confused, "What are you talking about now? What does Doc have to do with this?"

Maggie rolled her eyes, "If you are trying to please Doc by being kind to these creatures, then maybe he isn't the right person for you after all. I can see he's already brainwashed you!"

Now it was Sharon's turn to be angry, she said in a dangerously low voice, "Don't you dare talk about Doc like that! Who the hell are you to tell me that he is not the right person for me, just because he doesn't agree with _your _ideas? And I have not been _brainwashed! _Don't you have any faith in my intelligence at all?"

"Sweetheart, I am not questioning your intelligence, I know you are a very smart person. I do however believe that love is blind and can make you jaded." Maggie sighed, "And that is why I must discourage you from continuing to see Doc."

"I'm sorry mother, but I'm 27 years old and as much as you'd like to think you have control over every aspect of my life, you don't have the right to make those kind decisions for me! Anyway, regardless of what Doc thinks about the souls, I know that Wanda is a good person and she and Sunny are my friends now and I refuse to let any harm come to them!"

As soon as I heard those words from Sharon's mouth, I couldn't help but feel warm inside. She had truly accepted us. She was even willing to fight to protect us.

I heard Maggie gasp, "I'm sorry, but I will not allow my daughter to be seduced by these _aliens. _Which I can see has already happened to you!"

Sharon now raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. She had a very coy expression on her face now, "What are you going to do, obviously this is a losing battle, I'm not changing my mind because_ you_ want me to? Are you going turn your back on me like you've done to Mel?"

Maggie gasped again, "How can you say such a thing? I've never turned my back on her! Not now that she is back in her body."

"Oh, but you have mom. Don't you see? Melanie has already accepted Wanda. They are practically sisters now! If anyone has the right to be angry towards the souls, she of all people deserves that right, since _she_ was the one who was invaded, but she's not! Wanda's one of her new best friends! You may have accepted Melanie back in your good graces now, but how about when she was trapped in her own body and couldn't speak for herself? You slapped her across the face! Think about that!"

"Now daughter, don't you think you're being a bit hypocritical? You turned your back on her too!"

"You're right, I did, but I now beat myself up over that everyday! I was wrong and I apologized to her for that."

Maggie turned her back on Sharon, and said in a resigned voice, "You're right, this is an argument neither of us can win. Do what you want with these parasites, but until you decide to come to your senses, and see that I am right, I just cannot have any part with you. Please leave me."

Sharon breathed in angrily, "Fine, have it your way!" When I knew she was storming out of the cave I ran back several feet so she wouldn't know I was eavesdropping. I could see the tears trying to escape from her, but she hastily brushed them away. She finally saw me, and turned her head away quickly so I wouldn't see her crying. She was headed towards the hospital wing, to find Doc. I decided to let her be, it sounded like confronting her mother had to be the hardest thing for her to do. A few moment's later, Maggie stormed out of the dorm and she saw me walking and she gave me the deadliest glare she could muster, and it brought chills up my spine.

"I hope you're very proud of yourself!" she spat at me. She walked off towards the Kitchen and Dining Hall.

I just stood there in the halls paralyzed for a few minutes before I decided to go to the Dining Hall to find Melanie, and Jamie, but suddenly for some reason I had lost my appetite.

_I don't know if anyone watched Rock of Love, but every time I think of the name Lacey now, I think of the crazy red headed chick that instigated all the fights. Ha! Ha! I imagine that the Lacey in the book is kind of like that, only short and probably more innocent looking._

_Well that's the end of the fourth chapter, a lot happens in this chapter, which is partly why it's so long._

_Again please read and review!_


	5. Chapter 5

_Thanks for the reviews! I love getting feedback! ___

_I know I am very slow at posting, but these last couple months have been extremely hectic for me and I just now had time to continue my story, and this chapter was exceptionally difficult to write since it was a transitional chapter. I am also going back to school to get my BS in Web/Interactive Media Design and it's been eating most of my time. For those of you reading this for the first time, most of the OC's in this story are primarily extras, I do however have a few new characters that will have significant rolls, but for the most part I'll try to stay true to the book by keeping Melanie and Wanda the central Characters._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters and the original Host. I only own the OC's and the plot._

Chapter 5:

_I just stood there in the halls paralyzed for a few minutes before I decided to go to the kitchens to find Melanie, and Jamie, but suddenly for some reason I had lost my appetite._

A surge of guilt ran through me because I couldn't help but feel responsible for causing a rift between a mother and her daughter, especially knowing all too clearly that this world belongs to them more so than me.

I walked into the kitchens and grabbed some food. The egg casserole smelled heavenly, but I just grabbed some cereal since I wasn't in the mood to eat. When I walked into the dining hall, I saw Mel and Sunny wave me down. Jamie was sitting next to them. I noticed that Destiny wasn't with them yet.

When I approached the table with my food tray, Melanie could read my expression and her smile immediately turned into a look of concern.

"Everything alright Wanda?"

I shook my head and then I proceeded to tell them the whole exchange I had heard between Maggie and Sharon. All three of their jaws dropped when I had finished telling the story.

"I can't believe Maggie could turn on her own daughter like that," Sunny said quietly.

"I can," Melanie said with a snort, "I am not surprised one bit."

"But how can a mother just cut off her own child? They are a part of one another," Sunny said looking very confused.

"Well apparently it comes easily to Aunt Maggie," Jamie said, "She was quick to cut out Mel when Wanda was inside of her."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I will ever understand your kind," Sunny said shaking her head sadly.

"I wonder if Sharon is going to join us today for breakfast?" Jamie asked. Since I had started helping out in the classroom, Sharon had become a lot more relaxed with her students. I guess teaching had gotten pretty stressful on her, and as a result, she and Jamie were getting along better.

At that moment I looked around the Dining hall for her and wasn't surprised that Maggie was nowhere to be found. Sharon still hadn't shown up in the Dining Hall either.

"She probably went to talk with Doc. She probably wants to be alone right now."

A few moments later, Jared, Ian and Kyle walked in with Jeb. Kyle scooped up Sunny and planted one passionately on her face. He put back down a blushing Sunny and sat with his arms around her. I couldn't get over how much Kyle had changed in the little time I have known him. He looked very happy and content with Sunny.

Jared sat down next to Melanie and put his arm around her. Jamie spotted Destiny as she walked in with her family and he left to go sit with them. Jamie and her dad looked like they were getting along quite well. They discovered that they had many similar interests. Although it had taken awhile for Brian to warm up to him, Brian was just being the over protective father.

Ian came over to my side and cupped my face affectionately, "You alright babe? You look like your upset about something."

I just shook my head, "I just feel guilty that's all."

I saw his eyes furrow, "What for, this time?"

I sighed, "I think I may have been responsible for destroying the mother and daughter relationship between Sharon and Maggie." Ian looked confused so I continued, "I overheard them having a very heated argument and it was over me. Now Sharon and Maggie aren't even speaking to each other and I feel like it is my fault."

Now Ian was upset, he stared determinedly into my eyes, "Wanda, I want you to listen to me. None of this is your fault. It's no secret that Maggie's a stubborn cranky old bitch! You have nothing to do with their argument. Maggie is the only one who refuses to listen to reason, and I don't want to hear any more crap about you not deserving to be here! You are just as much a human as I am." I nodded in response. "Besides you don't think that Sunny is also to blame for their fall out do you?"

"Of course not!" I exclaimed.

"Well you're no different," Ian declared, and he saw that I still had doubt in my eyes and he just pulled me towards him and rocked me, "think no more of it, can you promise me that? Maggie is the one who should feel guilty."

"Ok," I sighed.

***

After breakfast, Jeb assigned us our tasks for the day. Melanie and I were put to work in the kitchen along with Paige, Heidi, Trudy, Lacey and Geri. Luciana was in charge, but by now even she had warmed up to me. She still kept a little bit of distance distance, but she was much more accepting, and she would even ask me questions now and then about the other planets. Lacey was supposed to be working with us to get everything cleaned up, but she spent most of the time complaining about her "Carpel tunnel" flaring up. Paige rolled her eyes. She was convinced Lacey made it up just so she'd have a good excuse not to carry her share of the work. The morning was going pretty smoothly. My friends and I spent the most time laughing and telling different stories about the caves, lives before the caves, and the other people in the caves. We were just having such a great time that I didn't notice the dishes were about three quarters of the way done. That was when Maggie entered the room, sucking all of the happiness and comfort with her. I tried to work on the dishes like normal trying to pay no attention to her, but I could feel her glares boring holes down my back.

"Did you need something Magnolia?" Luciana asked politely.

"As a matter of fact I did," she said in a cold voice. "Jeb wanted me to work in here today. I was in the fields, but apparently the schedule of workers got mixed up and I was supposed to be in here." She rolled her eyes.

The moment she said she was working in the kitchens, I felt the blood drain from my face. She caught my eyes then had this malicious look like a lion after finding its prey.

Luciana thought for a moment, "Well, we are almost done with the dishes, but I suppose you can help us finish putting them away, and we could definitely use your help by cutting up the ingredients for lunch."

Maggie nodded then walked over to the dishes not even looking at me and began putting the plates away in the cabinets. My heart was pounding in my head as I was working. The tension in the kitchen was unbearable to my tiny body. You could cut it with a butter knife. Suddenly, when Maggie knew that nobody was looking, she knocked the plates out of my hands as she walked by. I watched helplessly as they shattered to the ground.

"My, my, Wanderer, I had no idea you were so clumsy," she commented lightheartedly, "Well don't just stand there looking mental, go get a broom and clean up your mess!"

I slowly nodded, unbelieving that anybody could be so petty, and then went to go find a broom. Melanie on the other hand, glared daggers at Maggie. Even though she didn't see what had happened, she could take a pretty good guess. One of the reasons I love her so much, sometimes I wonder if she can still read my thoughts. Good naturedly I cleaned up Maggie's mess. Despite what she did, I still felt guilty for being the reason that her and Sharon's relationship was torn. Unfortunately things got worse as the afternoon progressed. Maggie continued to sabotage the work that I did. For example, she would drop the eggs that I handed her for the casserole. When I wasn't looking, she would turn the heat up too high, causing me to burn the bacon. By the time we were halfway through cooking the lunch, Melanie was fed up with Maggie's behavior. She had been very aware of how her aunt was treating me, and looked like _she _was about to boil over. Maggie had just finished pulling another one of her stunts, when Mel decided to call her out.

"That's quite enough, Maggie! I've had it up to here with your shenanigans!" Melanie angrily shouted gesturing with her hands to the top of her head. Everyone in the kitchen stopped what they were doing and looked at her. Maggie looked at Mel in shock, "Oh stop pretending you don't know what I'm talking about! I've been watching you the whole time you've been in here! I know you've been purposefully sabotaging Wanda and it needs to stop now!"

Instead of getting defensive, Maggie just smiled venomously sweet to her niece, "Now Melly, how could you accuse your own aunt of doing such a thing?"

"It's not hard," Melanie stated coldly, "Considering the fact its no secret, you'd throw Wanda and Sunny under the bus the first chance you get. But then again, I guess it is to be expected since you've already turned your back on your own daughter and niece."

After she said those last words, Maggie's mouth dropped. She looked like she was about to say something else, but Melanie held her hand up, "I think I'm done here." Melanie went back to cutting the vegetables without so much as looking at Maggie. At that moment, I felt completely blessed to have Melanie as my friend. She was completely on my side. I got annoyed with myself to think that she could ever be a threat to me. After the incident, Melanie made sure that we were always working together. Maggie remained on the opposite side of the room, working with Page and Luciana. They had nothing to say to her. Luciana was pissed at Maggie, not because she was sabotaging me, but because of all of the food and dishes she wasted with her childish stunts. By the time we had finished cooking, people were already trickling into the kitchen. Regardless of all of the drama, everyone seemed to enjoy the meal just the same. This time I spotted Doc walking in with a tear stained Sharon. My guess was that she had been crying the whole morning. She saw Mel and I and smiled slightly as we waved them over to a table. We all ate in awkward silence, since none of us could really think of a way to consol her. Lunch was about halfway over when Sharon finally spoke.

"I know you probably overheard the argument between my mother and I," she said looking at me indifferently. Her voice was flat and drained as she spoke, "I hope you don't think I blame you for any of this," she said looking down before continuing, "I should have expected her to act this way." As she said this Ian nudged me in the ribs.

"Ouch!"

"See what did I tell you Babe? You had no control over this."

For the first time today I saw Sharon laugh, "I still love my mom and everything, but damn it, she can the most judgmental and prejudiced, bitch I know! Even before you're kind came to Earth, if she didn't like how you looked at her or matched her criteria in some way, she could right you off before you could even open your mouth to tell her she won a million dollars."

***

The remainder of the month went by fairly quickly. Sharon and Doc became a regular part of our group, in addition to Destiny, who officially became Jamie's girlfriend after they had been practically joined at the hip for a little over a week. Melanie, and I were still getting used to the fact that our little Jamie was growing up. Nevertheless, Destiny was a delight to be around. She had what the humans called an "old soul," she was very intelligent and always came up with the most brilliant insights. In class, both Sharon and I were fascinated by some of the crazy ideas she would come up with. Sharon was still taking the fall out with her mother pretty hard, which I had expected. The good thing was that she would regularly express her feelings to Melanie, Sunny and I instead of bottling her emotions. The four of us would often talk until late, and then we would remember that there would be tons of work for us to do the next day so we would try to get back at decent hours. Gradually, my classes got easier to teach, and by the fourth, it felt completely natural talking about my experiences on the other planets. After class ended, Sharon and I were recapping on how the class went when Jeb met up with us. He had a sly grin on his face.

"Ah, I'm so glad to see you both getting along so well. See Wanda, what I tell you? Sooner or later, everyone would see what a delightful person you are!"

Sharon smiled at me in affirmation, but then her face fell, "Well not everyone… the woman who gave birth to me, still won't so much as look at me."

"Well now, I wouldn't give up hope on her yet. You know my sister, she will never admit when she's wrong, regardless of what it may cost her."

"So what are you up to, Uncle Jeb?" Sharon asked lightheartedly clearly trying to change the subject.

"Ah, glad you asked," Jeb beamed, "As you know our next raid is in the next couple days and the guys have been taking inventory of what we may need, and they wanted to have another planning meeting before you all left, just to explain the procedures to any newbie that is coming along and also to double check that they aren't missing anything on the lists. So I told them I'd help round all you all up."

"Awesome! So where are we to go?" Sharon asked still obviously trying to put her mother to the back of her mind.

"I decided on the game room since that seems to be the best place to meet, and as you very well know, I'm in charge around here." He then chuckled.

Sharon and I looked at each other smiled and rolled our eyes at him. After we followed him to the game room, it was moments before everyone else filed in. Sharon saw Doc come in and looked at him confused.

"I need to give Jared and Ian my list," he then added, "and I wanted to make sure you'd be well protected."

She scowled slightly, "I think I can handle a few days in the world." Doc chucked and put his arms around her. I walked over beside Andy and Ian and leaned into Ian's arms.

Jared cleared his throat, "Ok, since I think I have everybody here that is going, lets go over the rules and game plan again. First off, Ian, Kyle, Andy and I will raid the homes. Then I'll have either Wanda or Sunny go into the hospitals and grab the meds. I'm thinking I'll just let Wanda do it, since she's been doing this for a while and has the confidence to pull it off. Remember we need more heal, no pain, and whatever that stuff is called to knock the patient out," he said looking pointedly at me. I nodded in response, "Because of the many we've freed, we've run pretty low. While you're at it, pick up any other meds that may be useful that we haven't used. While you're doing that, Melanie, and Paige will bring in people who are off on their own. We're only freeing two people at a time since we don't want the Souls to catch on to what we are doing. Once they are safely inside the car, I want Sharon to immediately inject them with the knock-out serum. Then we'll need to stop at a grocery store, to pick up the food items, and other groceries. I have the list in my hands."

"Babe, can you add milk, eggs, bacon, glasses and plates to that list?" Melanie asked.

"No prob, but why the glasses and plates?"

"Oh there was an accident in the kitchen earlier this month," Melanie said giving me a knowing look.

"Ok, I guess we can stop off at a Wal-Mart or Target. When we go into the stores, Sunny that's where we are going to need your help, and Wanda will be with you. Sharon, do you want to try going into the stores as well?"

"Yea, I'm pretty sure I can blend in well enough to not get caught."

"Ok, that's settled then, and when we need gas for the car, I'll just have Wanda go in and Kyle can pump the gas. And I guess that's about all I've got… unless any of you have any questions or concerns?" Nobody spoke up. "Ok meeting adjourned. Doc, can I have your list of medicines and supplies we need to get?" Doc handed Jared the list. "Thanks! Wanda, I'll give you the list when we get in the car tomorrow. If possible memorize the list then when we get to a medical clinic, destroy the list and get what we need."

I nodded then walked out of the caves with Ian to spend the last bit of alone time we'd have together before we'd leave for the trip.

_Well that's the end of the fifth chapter. I promise I won't take so long to post the next chapters. Like I said earlier, these last couple months have been super hectic._

_Again please read and review!_


	6. Chapter 6

_Thanks for the reviews! I love getting feedback! ____ I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's longer than the rest so far, but a lot happens._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters and the original Host. I only own the OC's and the plot._

Chapter 6:

_I nodded then walked out of the caves with Ian to spend the last bit of alone time we'd have together before we'd leave for the trip._

Ian and I were about halfway down the hall when Jamie caught up to us.

"Hey bud, what's up?" Ian asked messing up his hair, "You know I think your sister may still be hanging out in the game room."

"Oh, yea, I'm aware of that. Actually, I wanted to talk to _you,_ but in private," he said looking at me apologetically.

"Oh! Sure…no problem!" I turned to Ian, "I'll wait for you in our room?" I asked kissing him on the cheek. I gave Jamie a hug as I headed for the dorm. I was taken aback, because normally Jamie always wished to talk to me. I was surprised that it kind of hurt my feelings. This type of thing never bothered me when I was in Melanie's body, one of the many things I still needed to get used to in Pet's body. I guess the previous host had very strong emotions. When I had gotten back to the dorm, I wanted to do something romantic before the raid the next day. To me, the raids were my biggest source of adventure and excitement, because even though we usually made it back undetected, it was still very risky. The night before the raid, Ian and I had this secret tradition that we would sort of pretend it would be the last night we would both be alive together, and we had to make the last night count. I put away any extra clutter that was in the room, like dirty laundry that would pile up on the floor, empty soda cans, anything that could potentially kill the mood. Then I lit several candles all around, made the bed and pulled down the comforters. I fluffed up the pillows, and for the final touch, I took a bag of fake rose petals that I always kept in one of my drawers and sprinkled them over the top of the bed and made a trail along the floor to the entrance. Next, I walked over to the wardrobe cabinets and pulled out my teal lacey baby doll lingerie with my matching thong panties to go underneath. I put the matching lightweight robe over the top, but left it untied. I sprayed some perfume over me, then looked in the mirror, and fluffed up my long silky hair. I lied on the bed with one leg crossed over the other. I made sure that I had shaved my legs that morning. I heard footsteps coming towards the door, so I pretended to be reading a magazine. Ian walked into the room and when he saw the petals that were on the floor, he smiled.

Then he scanned the room. "Wow! I can't believe you pulled all this together in the five minutes I was talking to Jamie!"

I looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, "You have no idea how much I can accomplish in five minutes, I said with a smirk."

Ian immediately kicked off his shoes, and crawled onto the bed towards me, "Oh, I can't wait to find out," he purred silkily, then he whispered, "And we have the whole night!" Then he kissed me passionately on the lips. I tossed my magazine off to the side as we embraced each other.

We pulled away breathless, and I pointed over the side table that had a bowl of fruit I had cut up in the kitchen, in addition to a can of whipped cream and a small bowl of chocolate syrup, that I had also taken from the kitchen, since we could always pick up more on the raid.

"You think of everything!" Ian said with a smirk, "Well I happen to have a bottle of wine I jacked from the last raid," he said pulling out the bottle of Chardonnay from a small ice chest under our bed. He poured two glasses and we toasted. Then he took a strawberry and dipped it in the chocolate feeding it to me as I sat cradled in his arms. Some of the syrup dripped onto my chin and he licked it off of me. I giggled like I usually do and pushed him over. I unbuttoned his shirt and took the whipped cream and sprayed it in a line down his chest. Taking a few pieces of fruit in my mouth, one at a time I'd move them over the line of whipped cream. Then I poured the whipped cream in his mouth and put a cherry on top and we kissed passionately as I ate the cherry.

*****

It was around 1 in the morning and we were both exhausted. While lying in bed peacefully still holding each other, the curiosity got the better of me.

"So what did Jamie want to talk to you about?" I asked.

"My, Wanda, I never thought I'd take you for such a nosey Rosie," he chuckled.

"I'm not nosey," I said indignantly, "I'm just concerned about my younger brother." Ian rolled his eyes than smiled.

"Jamie wanted me to pick him up a lot of Twinkies on the raid."

"That's what he pulled you aside to ask him?" I asked stifling a laugh.

Ian nodded, "Yea, sorry it's not more Earth shaking than that," he said with a smile.

"O-k… but I still don't understand why it's such a huge secret," I said confused.

"Well… he knows that they are you're most favorite food in the world and he didn't want you to know about his secret stash."

I rolled my eyes than gasped sarcastically "What? He has a secret stash of Twinkies that I never knew about?" Then I pretended to grab my heart, "I feel so… so… out of the loop!"

Ian chuckled at my pretend tirade then hit me in the face with a pillow, "Well, he also wanted some advice on girls, and it would have been awkward around you or Mel."

"But I'm a woman, wouldn't that make me more qualified to give him advice?"

Ian thought for a moment, "Well it's different though. Us men have our secret techniques to share on handling our women," he said nudging me playfully.

Now it was my turn to hit him in the face with a pillow, "Thank you Ian! I never knew we needed to be _handled,_" Ian chuckled then kissed my head softly and we fell asleep because we were so exhausted.

***

The next morning, Jared, Ian, Kyle and Sunny were loading up a cargo van with sleeping bags, everyone's personal luggage, food and supplies that we would need. A few moments later, Sharon and Melanie came out and joined everyone with Doc trailing behind them. Melanie ran over to Jared and jumped into his arms.

"Is everything loaded up yet?"

"Just about, we'll leave in a few minutes. Jeb is doing some last minute checks, then he'll come see us off."

"Excellent! It will be good to get some real fresh air. These trips are always exciting!"

Jared chuckled, "You've always been an adrenaline whore, Mel!"

Melanie laughed then kissed his lips, "Yes, and you still love me anyway. And you know you love it!"

"That, I do, babe." He said kissing her back. Then he pulled away slowly, still holding her hand. "Come on and help me finish loading this stuff, maybe you can find room for some of all this crap."

"Even better, I can tell you which stuff we can leave behind."

"Sorry babe, looks like we may be needing all of it, but you can double check anyways." Melanie followed Jared to the van and greeted the others.

I looked over as Sharon turned to Doc. He pulled her into his arms in a long embrace, then he tilted her head back so they were peering into each other's eyes, "Are you sure about this Hun? Because, you still have time to change your mind-" Sharon put her index finger over his mouth to shut him up as he kissed it.

"I told you, like I said before, I'm doing this!" she said firmly. "Don't you know I've been dying to have the chance to get out of these caves, even if it's only for a moment?"

Doc sighed, "Yeah, but I just want you to be safe."

Sharon rolled her eyes, "Eustace, I'm going to be fine! I mean, of course there is going to be some risk involved, but what adventure doesn't? You know the group I'm with has never failed us yet."

"I know, you're right, and I do trust Jared and the team… it's just that lets say something does go wrong, I just can't bear the thought of losing you." He said pulling her closer, "And I don't know what I'd do if you came back with some random Soul placed in you. I'm sure that they'll be pleasant to be around like Sunny and Wanda, but they won't be _you._"

Sharon smirked, "Oh Eustace, love, you will never lose me, and do you want to know why? Because let's say the Seekers do get a hold of me, you will remove the Soul from me successfully just like you have done with everyone else. I will come back to you, because I will fight just like Mel did, and I will refuse to allow myself to be erased."

Doc smiled and sighed, "I know you will, but I will still worry every night until I can hold you in my arms again." Sharon leaned in as he kissed her passionately on the lips.

"And you won't have to worry too long, we will be back before you know it, but I will also be thinking of how much I'll be missing you," she said in between kisses. To think that she could ever feel threatened by the other healer, Candy, just because they spent a lot of time together working. It was as plain as day that he only had eyes for Sharon and her brilliant reddish brown hair.

In the middle of Doc and Sharon's romantic interlude, Jeb cleared his throat as he was coming outside with a list. Sharon pulled away from Doc and joined me as we walked towards the van. By now everyone else was seated in the van. There were still two spots for us to sit. There was a free seat in the back next to Ian and there was another free spot in the middle next to Andy and Brandt. Sharon chose the seat next to the window that was rolled down. Doc was still holding her hand. Jeb and Jared were talking about last minute details on the trip until Jeb finally nodded towards the whole group.

"Again, I appreciate you all taking the risk to go do this. I wish you all a safe trip and the best of luck. I'll say a quick prayer of blessing for you as you go on your way." He took off his hat and bowed his head, and when he looked up he waved for us to go. We all waved back, Sharon kissed Doc one last time through the window, and he didn't go back into the caves until we were on the roads. As soon as we were, Ian called out to Jared, who was driving,

"Hey Howe, could you pass back some Twinkies for Wanda and I?"

"Sure, but I'm not sure if I have any left."

Melanie sighed and rolled her eyes, "Jared, I swear to God, you can be a worse liar than Wanda at times!" She tossed an old backpack full of Twinkies that Jared had found in an old cabin.

Jared groaned, "Awe, Babe! You revealed my secret stash!"

"Yea? And what? Didn't your parents teach you to share?" Melanie jabbed teasingly.

Jared laughed, "Just giving you all a hard time! Take as many as you like, we'll pick up some more later. Since we went north on our last raid, I was thinking this time around we'd go more south and go as far as Texas. We don't want to make any normal patterns just in case some of the Seekers are starting to catch on to a routine. Since we were almost caught last time, I think it's best if we get as far away from the caves as possible. That way, we aren't exposing everyone else."

"So we aren't going to stay with Burns' group in their caves for a night?" Melanie asked startled. We had found that the other group had become a sort of alliance with us. They would always welcome us into their caves whenever we needed a place to crash on our raids.

Jared thought for a moment, "Well, maybe on the way back, but right now I feel it's too risky to go out of our way to drive there again. Remember, we must think efficient. The sooner we get through everything, the safer we are. I want to at least try to hit Nevada today." Melanie nodded, and Ian looked relieved.

I had never noticed it before until now, but Ian never was too keen on visiting the other group, "Ian, do you have anything against those people? They've been nothing but kind to us."

"Yea, I guess… Burns especially towards you," Ian said under his breath.

Andy snickered, "I think someone's a bit jealous," he said.

"Am not!" Ian said defensively, "I just don't like how he looks at her, it's kind of… creepy."

"Well, I'm not creeped out, he probably just isn't used to seeing another soul around humans, and he's fascinated that he isn't the only social outcast," I said matter-of-factly.

Andy turned to Sharon and Brandt, "He's totally jealous!" Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I am not jealous!" Ian said and pouted, "I am perfectly secure in me and Wanda's relationship."

"Look, it's not something to be ashamed of, in fact I think it's kind of endearing," Sharon said, then she added, "I do kind of have to admit, that at times I totally get jealous of Candy, I mean they work together all the time, sometimes late hours. How am I to know that they are working all that time?"

Melanie, Sunny and I all turned to look at her. "Are you kidding me?" Melanie asked her cousin incredulously, "You have Doc completely whipped!" Jared looked at her like 'Oh really?' She ignored him and continued, "He is completely head over heals in love with you! He would never ever do anything that could jeopardize your relationship. Especially, when you both just made up! I think that he's just so grateful to have you back, cheating is the last thing he'd ever want to do!"

"You think?" Sharon asked thoughtfully.

Melanie rolled her eyes, and then smacked her cousin upside the head, "Duh! Don't you see the way he looks at you, especially when he thinks you're not looking? You are the only person on his mind."

"Ok ok! I guess you're right, but it's Candy I don't trust. I mean, I know nothing about her! How do I know that _she _doesn't have eyes for him?"

"It doesn't matter," I piped in, "As far as I know, she's married to her work and learning new things as a healer. Besides, she wouldn't be interested in him anyway because she's too old for him," I paused to figure out whether I should mention anything or not, but in the end decided that everyone in the car was trustworthy enough not to go around spreading rumors, "And… she's not into men." It took Sharon some time before what I said dawned on her.

"Oh my God! I had no idea!"

Melanie looked back at her cousin, "Are you serious? You didn't know?"

Sharon thought a moment, "well, I knew she was a bit of a tomboy, but she's still feminine enough to get attention from the men."

"That may be true," Melanie said, "but that doesn't change the fact that she's not into _them._"

Sharon sighed with relief. She decided we all made good enough sense for her to realize that she had nothing to worry about. Ian on the other hand, I could tell was still not comfortable with the idea of meeting up with Burn's group, instead he continued to hold me close to him though. We were both so comfortable that we fell asleep for most of the ride, until we pulled into a gas station. I woke up as Jared parked next to a pump. Jared turned around in his seat to look at me, "You ready for this Wanda?"

"Piece of Cake!" I chimed, I then looked at Sharon, "You get to see me in action for the first time!"

"I'm telling you guys, Wanda is amazing with this, never have I seen anyone that I know who could rob someone completely blind and still wave and end on good terms with the souls she ravaged," Jared boasted

She smiled warmly, "Good luck!" I returned her smile, and hopped out of the van, and straightened the long skirt I was wearing. I walked into the shop and saw a soul sitting at the register. He smiled when he saw me come in. He was a Middle Eastern man about 5'6 and looked to be in his early forties.

"Hi! I need to fill my gas tank," I said.

"No problem! Which pump are you using?"

I looked to see which one Jared had parked next to, "Number 4 please." He punched in some numbers on the register.

"Ok, you're all set, all you need to do is start pumping. Is there anything else I can help you with today?" I thought for a moment and looked around, "I think I'll grab 7 cherry flavored Slurpies."

The cashier raised his eyebrows, "You can't possibly drink all of those! Gotta big crowd with you?"

I giggled in response, "Yea, they're all waiting for me in the van." I mentally kicked myself for saying that. What if he wanted to go say hi to everyone, and then he'd know. Instead the man gave me a few cardboard drink holders so I could fill them with the Slurpies. He asked if I wanted help carrying them to the van, but instead I thanked him and said I had that covered.

I got back to the van and everyone was grateful that they had something cool and sweet to drink, while I pumped gas, drinking my Slurpie. We finally drove off and we were trying to decide where to stop next. Usually we always stopped off at stores that carried things in bulk like Costco or Savemart. We drove several miles when we eventually came to a Wal-Mart. We tried to find a parking spot that was in an obscure location that wasn't near any cars.

"Ok, I'm definitely going in, who's coming with me?" I asked enthusiastically. Sunny looked at Kyle and he reassured her that she'd be safe because she was a soul. Then

Sharon raised a hand. "If you don't mind, I would like to try."

Jared tried to discourage her. "No way, it's too risky, all they have to do is look in your eyes and they'd know you were human."

Sharon rolled her eyes, "I've lived among these people in Chicago and New York, and I could blend in so well, that none of them ever suspected me as a human. They didn't even have to look in my eyes. Also, baseball caps are very good about shielding your eyes."

Jared sighed, "But are you willing to take that risk for all of the people inside the caves? It's one thing to casually walk by them, but what about when you're surrounded by tons of souls and interacting with them at the register?"

"You obviously have never worked retail have you? They have warehouses in the back of the stores, I can just sneak behind the trucks and grab whatever is coming off the truck when nobody is looking." Sharon put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows at him.

"Ok, fine, Sunny can go with you then, because I'm fully confident that Wanda won't need much help in there." Jared handed us all the lists and we enthusiastically went to accomplish our goals.

***

I had probably been in there about half an hour getting various items on the list. It was too easy, but when I was heading out to the van, my concerns turned to Sunny and Sharon. Sunny was still brand new to all of this and I was afraid she'd choke, and I was concerned about Sharon since she was the only human going in. When I got back to the van, I noticed that Sunny and Sharon had beaten me to it and both were beaming. I loaded up my steal in the back but noticed that the back of the van was almost halfway full of groceries, clothing items and different toys, games and various electronics, although I have no idea how Jeb would get the electronics to work. I made a mental note to remind them of practicality later. Nevertheless, my mouth dropped in amazement.

"Wow! I can't believe you managed to grab all of this stuff! And so quickly too!" I squealed in excitement.

"Yea, not bad for my first time huh?" Sharon said quite pleased with herself. She turned over to Jared, "Even if I am just a little ol' human."

Jared rolled his eyes, and then smiled back at her, "Good job Sharon, I guess I underestimated your mad skills."

"Well, I do owe most of it to Sunny, without her I wouldn't have been able to get away with most of it."

"Good job Sunny, I'm impressed!" Melanie said to a blushing Sunny.

"Oh my gosh Mel, I can see why you all look forward to these raids so much! It was a complete rush!" Sharon exclaimed excitedly. Sunny nodded in agreement.

After we finished loading up our spoils, we all got back into the van. As soon as Jared safely got back on to the freeway, he spoke up, "So I was thinking since this last stop was a huge success, we don't need to load up on groceries for awhile. We'll still head down to Phoenix, and stop at maybe one or two more stores, because we don't want to go overboard. We have to somehow get all of this stuff back to the caves. On the way, we can stop off at a few hospitals and pick up more medical supplies that Doc was running low on in addition to anything new that we don't have yet. Kyle, Andy, did you remember to get the cyrotanks with the souls in them?

"Don't worry I remembered," Kyle answered, "It also couldn't hurt to pick up more."

This time Sharon spoke up, "Yea, Doc said we might need to pick up more… er… there was an incident a few weeks ago with some of them." Sharon looked down as she said this.

Melanie, Sunny and I all turned to look at her in surprise, "What happened Shar and why didn't you tell us? Melanie asked.

Sharon rolled her eyes, "Well, my mom was really upset and blamed Doc for brainwashing me into accepting people like Wanda and Sunny into our society. Doc tried to reason with her, but in the end just backed away. Then she grabbed a handful of the cyrotanks and smashed them on the floor to prove her point. Then she stormed out." She looked at us apologetically, "I didn't say anything because I was too embarrassed by her behavior."

Jared pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, trying to think of what to say next, "Ok, no big deal, we'll pick up more. However, it looks like we may need to put them in a more secure location that only Doc will know about."

We drove for a few more hours going through a drive through Burger King around lunchtime. Those were usually the safest places to get food. I dipped my fries in my chocolate shake and Melanie rolled her eyes at me as she grudgingly did the same thing. She found that the taste wasn't that bad after all. We stopped off at a few clinics and I grabbed some more heal, and other medications, and shoved them in my bra when nobody was looking. It was getting dark, and we were all exhausted. We parked at a local diner, and I took everybody's dinner order, so Sunny and I could go into the restaurant and pick up the food. The tricky part was finding a place to stay at where we could stay without suspicion. Finally we came across an old run down hotel.

"This is as good of place as any," Jared said, "Ok, it's best if I would do all of the talking everyone can wait in the lobby, but don't look anyone in the eyes ok? I was thinking that this time, since we have Andy, Brandt and Sharon who don't have significant others with them, it may be best if we just have two rooms, one for the guys and one for the girls." Everyone simply nodded although Ian and I were kind of disappointed that we couldn't sleep together. Jared was very good about taking the lead. We all waited in the lobby as Jared walked up to the counter. He made sure to wear sunglasses so the Soul working the front desk wouldn't be able to tell he was still human.

The soul at the counter was a younger man with a small mustache and dark hair slicked back and a wiry frame. He looked up at Jared with a friendly smile, "Hello sir, how can I be of assistants to you this evening?"

"Do you have any rooms available?" Jared asked casually.

"Well, it's been kind of a busy night tonight but I think I have two double rooms available. How big is your party?"

"There are nine of us total, but that should suit us fine." Jared said.

The soul was completely oblivious to the fact that Jared was wearing sunglasses in the dark hotel room. Instead, he just walked over to two cubbies and took out two sets of keys. "Follow me then." Jared gestured for us to follow them. We all stood up and followed them up a flight of stairs. "I apologize that there isn't more I can do for you all," the soul was saying, "There have been seekers coming in and out of this place through out the day."

We all looked at each other nervously, but the soul paid no attention to our exchange, he just continued up the stairs, "They suspect that there may be more humans on the rise, there was an incident earlier, although I shouldn't be telling you this, they didn't want others to know, they're trying to get to the bottom of it."

Jared cleared his throat, "So what er… happened that would cause suspicion among the seekers?"

The man shrugged, "Apparently there was a mass theft at a Wal-Mart a few cities north of here. They think it may just be a matter of miscounting the merchandise. That has been known to happen," the man chuckled, "but just the same, they want to check all of the surrounding areas, if there is a chance that there are still humans."

Ian and I looked at each other and I felt chills go up my arms and I was sure everyone else felt just as uneasy.

"I suspect they'll be out by next morning though. They generally only stay one night, since they have to always be on the alert. I pity that kind of life. I just don't think we were made to handle such stress." We continued walking until we came to the rooms. The soul handed Jared the keys, "Well I hope you enjoy your stay, this is where I leave you." The soul bowed and headed back down the hall.

Jared handed Mel a set of keys for the room the women would be staying in and he unlocked his room. Before he entered he turned to all of us and lowered his voice to a mere whisper, "So you all heard what the man said, as impressed as I am with Sharon and Sunny, I think we may have gotten carried away. This is generally the reason we make several stops at random cities. The souls don't get suspicious if they are only missing a few items here and there. Tomorrow morning we will wait until the seekers leave, then we will head out; only I think this may be a good time to raid some nearby homes. We need to get stay low key for a few days until this incident subsides." We all nodded then broke up into our rooms.

When we got inside I saw that it was almost as run down on the inside as it was on the outside. The flowered wallpaper was badly pealing revealing the ugly grey sheet rock. The carpet was this obnoxious orange red color that too was starting to pull away from the flooring, but was connected by duct tape. I shrugged and tossed my belongings under one of the beds. Sunny and I decided we would share a bed while Sharon and Melanie would take the other. Melanie started to unpack her stuff, and Sharon went to go take a shower. I started to unpack my things when I noticed that Sunny was just sitting on the bed with her head hidden behind her knees.

"Is everything ok Sunny?" I asked her.

Sunny looked up startled then smiled and nodded a little too quickly.

I raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure?" I pressed further.

At that moment a tear fell down her cheek and then few more followed, pretty soon her head was buried in her pillow. I felt bad that I had made her cry so I immediately went over to her side and put my arm around her shoulder.

"What's going on? Do you want to talk about it?" Melanie also noticed that Sunny was crying and came over to sit on the bed.

"It's… no… use!" Sunny blurted out. We looked at her confused. "I can't find her anywhere! And he's going to hate me!"

"I don't understand what you are talking about? Who can't you find and who's going to hate you?" Melanie asked.

"Jody!" She cried even harder. Then in between sobs she continued to explain. "I promised Kyle that I'd continue to look for her but it's no use! She's gone forever and it's my fault and Kyle's going to hate me!"

"Shhh!" I tried soothing her while brushing her hair out of her face. "It's ok, it's not your fault. It takes time sometimes."

"I know but I've been trying for months, and nothing!"

"Sunny, I want you to listen to me, maybe Jody allowed herself to be erased. This is your body now. It's your life!" I assured her.

"That's what I'm afraid of." She whispered silently.

"Why?" Mel asked. "I thought you loved it here!"

Sunny shook her head, "I do, but staying here means nothing if Kyle doesn't love me."

"Don't be silly! Of course he loves you!" I said, "I mean I've never seen him that sensitive or affectionate with anyone! I never even thought him capable of ever having a compassionate bone in his body!"

"I totally agree!" Mel added.

Sunny shook her head sadly, "but that's just it, he's not in love with _me, _he loves _her!_ I'm in Jody's body. It only appears as if he cares about me because he hopes that she will return to him when she sees how much he cherishes her. I'm nothing more than parasite in a body."

"Is that what he told you? Why I otta go over to his hotel room and give him a piece of my mind!" Mel said angrily.

"No!" Sunny said, "He would never say any such thing!"

"Then what makes you think that?" we all turned to look, to find that Sharon had joined the conversation. She was wearing her nightgown under a bathrobe and combing her hair. "Has he been asking about Jody?"

Sunny shrugged "Once in awhile, but he hasn't in the last couple months, and I hope you all forgive me for getting so emotional, these feelings have just been bothering me for so long and I've never been able to talk about it. And I have always been to afraid to tell Kyle for fear that he would either get angry or he would confirm my fears to be true."

"Oh Sunny, you know you can always come to us if things are bothering you! It's unhealthy to keep it all in! That's what we're here for!" I said.

Sharon, sat at the edge of her bed as she continued getting ready for bed, "If you ask me," she said nonchalantly, "If he does feel that way, then he's nothing but a waste of sperm and egg and you're better off without him anyway."

Sunny instead cried more, "But I love him! Isn't that enough? I can't think of any other way to prove my undying loyalty and love to him than to bring her back."

Melanie looked directly at Sunny, "I know that you love him and if he had any sense he'd love you like we do! And to be perfectly honest, I kinda don't want Jody to come back. I mean, I know nothing about this woman, for all I know she could be a complete bitch! You never knew Kyle like Wanda and I knew him. I wouldn't put it past him to date a girl like that."

"But she wasn't!" Sunny said, "She was amazing! She was the sweetest person. She was very devout in her faith in God. She would go to church every Sunday. She would always help any friend in need! She was very patient with Kyle and his crazy ideas and was always willing to go along with him!"

"But she's not _you_!" I said, "Besides, all those traits you mentioned sound just like you're describing _yourself!_" Melanie nodded in agreement.

Sharon, rolling her eyes got up off of the bed, "You do know that the obvious solution to this whole problem is to just talk to Kyle!" Sunny looked at her with wide eyes, but she held up her hand when Sunny began to protest. "Sunny, you need to know for sure so that you will no longer worry about it. At least you would know and wouldn't have to keep guessing. Also, lets say worse case scenario, he doesn't love you, it would be his loss to lose such a great person like yourself. You are worth so much more than a dumbass who can't see what he has in front of him and you can quit wasting your time on someone who could care less."

Sunny, Mel and I all looked at Sharon in surprise.

"What? I think she needs to know for her own sanity!"

"Cuz, I think that is one of the most brilliant ideas you've had since I've known you! And it's extremely obvious as well!" Melanie said. "I'll go get him!" Before Sunny could protest, both her and Sharon were already out the door."

I looked over at Sunny and shrugged, but it was perfectly clear the idea was making her uneasy.

A few minutes later the door opened and Melanie, and Sharon walked in with a very confused looking Kyle following them. Kyle saw Sunny and walked over to her. He sat down next to her on the bed and held her.

"What's going on Babe?" he asked. Kyle looked at us, "Hey can we get a minute?"

"Of course!" I said and the three of us walked to the other side of the room and just talked while Kyle and Sunny had their alone time. Of course curiosity got the better of us and we had to look across the room to see what was going on. I saw that Sunny was crying and telling Kyle everything she had told us. Kyle just listened patiently and nodded, while handing Sunny his handkerchief. When she finished talking, Kyle then spoke and he patted her knew and he sounded like he was reassuring her. Then they both took turns talking, and pretty soon Kyle and Sunny were making out passionately. I had never seen either of them as happy as I did at that moment. After about five minutes of kissing, both of them walked over to us, with Kyle's arms wrapped tightly around Sunny.

Kyle turned to Sunny, "Since it's getting late, I'm going to go back to the hotel room, but I hope you are feeling better about where we stand now?"

Sunny nodded, her cheeks turning pink. Kyle kissed her again, nodded to us then left the room. We waited for the door to close before we turned to Sunny and asked her what he had to say. We all made our way back to the beds and sat down.

"Well," Sunny began slowly. "We had a very good conversation, I told him pretty much what I told you guys and started crying again. He was very sweet and just listened to everything I said. He soothed me and encouraged me to take my time to tell him everything. Then he wrapped his strong arms around me and told me that the first time they removed me and tried to bring Jody back, they waited a long time and they saw that there were no signs of her returning. It was after they told him she was gone, that he grieved for her loss. Then Doc explained the options to Kyle, he said they could either let Jody's body die, and bury it like the others who had died in the caves, or they could put me back in, since they knew I wouldn't be a threat and I really liked it here. So Kyle went off by himself to think things through. By the next morning he decided that it would be a waste to just let the body die, and he told them to put me back. He said that while he was thinking things through, he vowed that if he put me back, then he would give me a fair chance as a separate girlfriend. It wouldn't have been right for him to expect me to _be _Jody when as much as my thoughts and memories are the same as hers, the fact remains that I am still Sunny and a soul. He knew he would have to accept me for who I am. He admitted that at first it was really hard for him to get used to it, but more time we spent together, the more he saw what an amazing and compassionate person I was. As months passed, he realized that I was the only one that he truly loved. He said that looking back, it wouldn't have lasted much longer with Jody, since they would probably have had nothing in common anymore. So much time has passed by, that he can barely remember much about her, not even her laugh that he would constantly tease in an enduring way. He told me that I was his new life, and I was his reason for even being the man he is today. He couldn't even imagine what his life would be like if he lost me too."

All three of our mouths dropped. That just seemed so different from the Kyle we knew, but it made us happy to know that he had changed. It was Mel who spoke up first.

"Well Sunny, I'm very happy for you! I told you, he was devoted to you."

Sharon and I both nodded in agreement. I gave Sunny a hug and Sharon squeezed her hand. I looked at the clock on the far wall and realized it was pretty late and we decided to get some sleep.

*****

I have no idea how long I had been sleeping, although it didn't seem long when I heard a knocking on the door. I looked over and saw that Melanie and Sharon were completely passed out on the other bed and Sunny looked so peaceful and happy especially after the conversation between her and Kyle, I would have hated to disrupt that. I looked at the clock to see it was only five am. I sighed rubbed my eyes and peeked through the peephole at the door. Seeing that it was only the guys, I opened the door. It barely opened when they all hastily made their way inside.

"What's going on?" I asked sleepily.

As soon as the door closed Jared turned to everyone that was awake, "The Seekers, they are inspecting all of the rooms right now. We need to wake up Mel and Sharon and hide them in the bathroom while they inspect this room."

"Oh, ok," I walked over to Mel and Sharon's bed when I heard Melanie already get up.

"I knew I heard Jared's voice, don't worry I heard what we're going to do." Everyone made his or her way to the bathroom except for Sunny who was still sound asleep. I heard a shower turn on into the bathroom. While they were hiding, I decided to get some rest, since we did have to act natural after all. About five minutes later, I heard a knocking at the door.

I walked over, and looked through the peephole again and saw about five souls standing outside the door dressed casually. There were about two women with them. As I answered it, I pretended to yawn, "Is there something I can help you with?"

One of the men nodded to me and spoke pleasantly, "I'm so sorry to disturb you Miss, but due to a raid at a Wal-Mart, we are checking all locations for possible humans. Do you happen to have any staying in this room?" As he said all of this, he shined an obnoxiously bright light in my eyes, when he saw I was a soul, he immediately turned it off.

"I'm sorry but it's only souls in here."

The Seekers made their way inside the hotel, and a blond husky woman said in a deep voice, "Oh really, I'm just going to check." She shined the light in Sunny's eyes, she was slightly annoyed, but went back to sleep. "Mind if I check the bathroom?"

I started to panic a little, "I would let you but, our friend is taking a shower and she doesn't like to be exposed."

"What about your male friends? They weren't in the room when we checked, did they go off and ditch you?" she asked sarcastically.

I had never met a soul so cranky, not even my seeker who was out to get me. I said politely, "They went to bring us breakfast."

"I see," she said searchingly, she looked over at the other Seekers and they had looked in the closet and shrugged when they came up empty. "Humph!" She huffed as she made her way out of the room.

The first man who greeted me said, "Well it looks clean in here, again I apologize for having to wake you up. We are only doing this for the safety of all souls."

"I understand, and honestly, I do appreciate the lengths you all have to go through just to protect us." I said in a bold faced lie. The man smiled, gave a nod, and closed the door behind him as he left. When they left, I knocked on the bathroom door. I heard the water turn off and everyone who was crowded into the tiny little bathroom practically fell onto the floor.

"What did you do, give them the grand tour and offer them tea?" Kyle asked sarcastically.

Ian rolled his eyes and put his arm around me, "Don't be such a douche, you know how persistent those Seekers are."

"No need to remind me," Melanie said with a snort. I looked at the clock and it was now about 5:30. Sunny was already starting to wake up when Kyle was gently playing with her hair, and watching her sleep. Even though it was Kyle, I found the whole scene enduring. Jared kept peering out the window to see if the Seekers had left. We all decided to repack everything so that we could leave soon after the Seekers were safely away.

*****

The Seekers ended up leaving around 6:30 so we took off at seven. We had been driving on the road for about a couple hours. We figured it would be safest to raid the homes during broad daylight so as to appear less suspicious, plus it would be the time when most of the Souls would be at work, making the odds of getting caught less likely. We did stop at some abandoned houses on the way, but we didn't find much that could be useful. We finally arrived in Phoenix around two, which was later than what we had hoped for, but that still gave us at least a few hours until the owners would be back. We were trying to decide which house we were going to raid when we came across a one story Mediterranean style home that was made of Adobe and painted with a light pale pink color. Matching adobe walls with Palm Trees and Cactus surrounded the home leaving it very private surrounded it. This would be the perfect home to raid. This time, Sunny and Kyle stayed in the car with Andy, while Jared, Brandt, Ian, Melanie, Sharon and I broke into the home. We didn't have to do much because Souls are so trusting that they don't bother to lock their doors.

The inside of the home, we discovered was just as stylish as it was on the outside. There was tons of beautiful indoor plants, and furniture. We headed straight to the fridge to see what we could find. Brandt and Jared found where the wine was kept. Sharon rolled her eyes. We weren't planning on taking everything, because we didn't want the owners to become suspicious so we just quickly scanned the house and took little things here and there. We all grabbed our bags and were finishing up when we heard the front door squeak and someone coming in. Brandt had already been quick enough to make his escape back to the car, but the rest of us hid behind the couch in the family room. We heard a soft, clear woman's voice echoing through the house.

"Hello? Batman, are you home dear?" We all held our breath and tried to tip toe when of course Sharon had to whisper.

"Wait a second, that voice sounds familiar!"

"Shhhh!" Mel hissed at her.

We heard the woman calling again, only she was getting closer and louder, "Love, I thought you were working at the office today?"

Maybe if we could quickly reach the back door we could go unnoticed. Doh! Too late, we were almost to the door when we heard the voice again.

"Who are you and what the hell are you doing in my house?" She asked. The language shocked me, because I had never heard another Soul talk in such a way. We all turned around to see a tall beautiful woman with short auburn hair styled in a flip, looking confused but at the same time very angry. She looked to be Mel and Sharon's age. Her face quickly softened when she spotted them. She gasped, "It can't be. No frickin' way. You're still human?" she asked full of disbelief.

Sharon gave the young woman her signature glare that she used to always give Sunny and I, particularly me. "Don't you dare, Parasite! Don't you dare pretend to be Aimee! I know what you've done! And thanks to you, she's gone! Erased from her own mind!" Sharon said in a dangerously low angry voice.

Aimee put up her hand in protest, smiling she put her fingers to her eyeballs and took out two contacts. Then she looked up at us again and to all of our shock, her eyes were completely human. I looked over at Sharon and she was completely taken aback. Melanie had a big smirk on her face, "Well I gotta hand it to you Aims, you always were the crafty one.

"Love, what's going on in here?" we heard an unfamiliar man speak. A few moments later, we saw a handsome, well build blond man, put his arm around Aimee and peer over at us. He looked just as confused as we were.

_Well that's the end of the 6th chapter. I'm really happy with this one because so much happens in this chapter. You can see why it's one of the longer ones! Besides I wanted to introduce Aimee and Batman before it got to be too late into the story._

_Again please read and review!_


	7. Chapter 7

_I'm kind of sad, because I didn't get any reviews last chapter! *sniffles* J.K. Anyway, I hope you like this one, it's a little short, but it's still interesting. Let me know what you think! I'm excited today I'm going to run the 5k in Mountain View, CA! Hopefully I can get through it without passing out._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters and the original Host. I only own the OC's and the plot._

Chapter 7:

_Aimee put up her hand in protest, smiling she put her fingers to her eyeballs and took out two contacts. Then she looked up at us again and to all of our shock, her eyes were completely human. I looked over at Sharon and she was completely taken aback. Melanie had a big smirk on her face, "Well I gotta hand it to you Aims, you always were the crafty one._

"_Love, what's going on in here?" we heard an unfamiliar man speak. A few moments later, we saw a handsome, well build blond man, put his arm around Aimee and peer over at us. He looked just as confused as we were._

I stared at the man, who was obviously Aimee's husband. He had beautiful turquoise eyes, with a hint of silver around the pupil, but was he wearing contacts as well? My question was soon answered when Jared spoke.

"Can somebody please, tell me what the hell is going on here?" He asked impatiently.

Melanie stepped over to Aimee, "Jared, I'd like you to meet Aimee. She used to live across the street from Sharon when we were kids. The three of us were best friends through high school…well until all this happened.

Sharon immediately ran over to Aimee and gave her a hug, "It's so good to see you, and you're still _human!_" Aimee was already so slender and frail looking, that she looked like she was going to get crushed. She laughed and hugged her back, and then Sharon for the first time noticed the man that was standing beside Aimee and backed up, "You!" She said angrily pointing a finger at the man. "Aimee, I can't believe you're still with that abusive douche bag, you've been with since high school. I thought you said you were going to dump his stupid arse!"

Aimee protectively stepped in between Sharon and the man, "No! This isn't Billy, that man is long gone!"

Jared cleared his throat and said matter-of-factly, "Well, perhaps not. If you guys come back with us, we can have Doc see what he can do."

Panicked, Aimee looked over at Melanie, "What's he talking about? Go back to where? Whose this doc person you all are talking about?"

Sharon stated flatly, "Doc is the man I'm seeing, and he knows how to safely extract souls from humans." Then she added with strong affection, "Aimee, you have to meet him, he's amazing!"

Aimee desperately put her arms protectively around her husband, "No! Please don't, you can't!" she looked down guiltily, "I don't want Billy back."

The man put his fingers to his lips and stroked her hair, trying to calm her down. He looked Jared in the eyes, "Don't worry love, it will be alright."

Sharon looked pointedly at the Soul, who inhabited Billy's body, and what she said next shocked me nearly out of my skin, "I agree with Aimee, I think it would be best if we leave him as a soul."

Jared looked at Sharon as if she had just betrayed him, "What!? I thought we were on the same side with this issue!"

Sharon looked back at Aimee, and the Soul, "I know and for the most part I am, but we do have exceptions, I mean look at Sunny and Wanda. You don't know Billy like we do. Trust me on this one, it would be a detrimental mistake if we brought him back.

Aimee looked up at Sharon and smiled slightly, "You all have no clue how Billy used to treat me, the things he did to me." Tears started to well up in her eyes and the Soul held her tightly.

Melanie looked at Aimee with concern and said in an audible whisper. "What exactly did he do to you? Sharon and I tried to warn you about Billy. He didn't seem right for you."

Aimee quietly gestured for us to follow her into the dining room, "Why don't you guys sit down for awhile, and I'll tell you everything. Is there anything I can get you? Water? Coffee? I baked some fresh chocolate chip cookies this morning." Everyone spoke up his or her requests, and as Aimee was about to make her way over, she paused, "By the way, I don't believe I have met all of you."

Melanie stood up, "I'm sorry, how rude of us, Jared is the love of my life, and he led us over here."

Aimee nodded as she poured some cups, "I kind of figured as much." Then Ian and I introduced ourselves. A few moments later, Kyle, Sunny and Brandt entered the house and looked like they were about to ask what was taking us so long, when they saw Aimee and her soul husband. Melanie quickly made the introductions and the three joined us at the table.

Once everyone had a cookie and their choice of beverage, Aimee sat down and started talking. "Billy and I first started dating my sophomore year of high school. Billy was a junior, and a quarterback of the football team. I had the biggest crush on him, and I went to one of their first games of the season. Sports never really interested me, but I was drawn to Billy so I went with some other friends. It was at that game that he took particular notice to me in the stands just observing the game. He later told me that he was intrigued by me. He thought I was beautiful, but he liked how I wasn't just another groupie fan out there. We had spoken after the game and we just immediately hit it off. He invited me to a local bar with his jock friends and a few cheerleaders joined us. Somehow the owners always turned a blind eye to us and would let us in even though we were underage. Billy's friends were very kind to me. I gradually spent more time with them. Sharon and Mel didn't much care for Billy, they told me he was arrogant which was why neither would have gone for him and why I shouldn't either. Although the arrogance in Billy didn't register at the time, he was very good about subtlety." She looked at Sharon and Melanie apologetically.

They smiled back encouragingly then Aimee continued. "Any jab he said in the beginning was so subtle that I only took it as a flaw I needed to work on. The jabs didn't actually come until we were together about a few months into the relationship. As we grew closer they started to become stronger and more hurtful, but I was so jaded that I didn't see how they were affecting me. I just fell deeper in love with him, and by the time I was a junior and he was a senior, I no longer kept my own friends, I became one of the 'popular' girls. I hung out with mainly the cheerleaders and other high profile girls. My best friend at the time was the student body president. One thing, I did notice about Billy was that he was very obsessive and got jealous pretty easy. I of course rationalized it as him caring about me and not wanting to ever lose me. He told me that he didn't like how his other football friends were paying so much attention to me. I never liked any of them in that way, they were just fun to be around and I just felt very comfortable around them. I saw them nothing more as brothers. Gradually, Billy and I would spend our time only with each other. He never let me out of his sight, and at the time I wouldn't have it any other way. It was during my senior year, and even though Billy graduated and was going to a local college, he still took me to prom. I was voted Prom Queen. I still have no idea how that happened. All I remember was after prom we went to the after party, which was in one of the hotel rooms upstairs. There was of course a lot of drinking involved. I think I had maybe one or two wine coolers. We were finally able to be alone, and I just wanted to talk and spend time with him. Billy, on the other hand had other ideas. We were just talking and kissing, when he whispered seductively in my ear that he was in love with me. I was on cloud nine when he said that, and of course I told him I felt the same way. Then I saw a look of sadness in his eyes. He said that if I truly loved him, then I would sleep with him. At that moment, realization dawned on me. I was planning on saving that part of myself until marriage. I told him that, but he said that it hurt him to think that we wouldn't spend the rest of our lives together. I then pulled the 'If you truly loved _me_ then you would marry me card'."

Sharon and Melanie both smiled at her, "You go girl!" Mel said.

Aimee looked them sadly, "I wish it turned out that way, unfortunately at first he was startled that I had spoken back to him like that. Then he became very angry and he smacked me really hard across the face, and called me horrible names, and violated me in the worst way. After it ended, I was shocked, I was overwhelmed with guilt and I wanted nothing more than to go home and shower. He rolled over and said in his usual mild mannered demeanor, 'Babe, that wasn't so bad now, was it? We both knew that we wanted this. I feel much closer to you already.' I just looked at him and read sincerity, and even though I felt ashamed I just smiled slightly."

As soon as Mel and Sharon heard that they gasped. Aimee looked down and continued. It was clear that as she went further into her story, she could still feel the pain. "After that, I still continued to stay with him, because I rationalized what had happened. I knew he was 'the one' I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, so why not let him open his gift early. I told myself that it was my fault for putting myself in such a compromising postion anyway. However, it was as if something about him had changed for the worse, he continued to disrespect me. We'd start getting into fights, more like, he'd get upset with me and would slap me around. He'd always feel remorseful afterwards and for weeks, he'd treat me like a princess. After I graduated high school, he begged me to move in with him. My parents didn't approve of that at all, but I still did it anyway. After first semester of college, Billy told me to quit since he could support me financially anyway. He got a really good high paying job at a car dealership selling new cars. He was very intelligent, but his job was very stressful and sometimes he'd beat me for no apparent reason. It wasn't until a year later that I just self-destructed and learned that I was worth more than the abuse, so I tried to escape. It was no use, because whenever he thought I was trying to leave him. He'd hurt me in different ways. A few times he would burn me with a lighter, but I moved to quickly for him, so all the scars are thin lines."

Aimee showed us her arms and lifted up her shirt a little so that we could see her back. Her husband looked down and rubbed her arms gently, as Aimee continued. "There was one weekend though, he was angry with me for something, I honestly thought he was going to kill me. He came at me with a knife, and I scrambled to get out of the way. He was accusing me of taking money from him so I could leave. When he saw that I was too fast, he got frustrated, punched a hole in the wall and stormed out of the house. He didn't come home that night, or the next day, so I figured that would be when I would make my escape. This was at the time when we were first taken over by the souls, so naturally I had never heard of such a thing. I had no idea where Billy was, but I finished packing my few belongings and I was about to walk out of the house when I heard the door open and I immediately dropped my suitcases. I saw Billy standing at the door, but there was something very different about him. At first I couldn't tell what it was, perhaps it was because he didn't look angry, instead I saw a look of affection and genuine love. A look, I had missed seeing in months, perhaps the years I dated him. He gently picked up my suitcases and said quietly, 'please don't be scared, and don't leave, at least not until we talk. I'm no longer going to hurt you.' So still shaking we sat down on the couch in the living room. That was when I learned the entire truth about Billy and how he got implanted with Batman," Aimee said patting his knee.

"Batman?" Jared asked confused.

Now it was the Soul's turn to speak, he laughed slightly, "You see I explained to her that I was from the planet of the Bats, and I couldn't remember much what they called me. Aimee always been infatuated with Batman on television, I would never watch it. (Too much violence.) So I told her, she could call me Batman from now on. So that's my Earth name."

I suddenly found myself curious about Batman's life and what he thought of his prior host, so I spoke up, "Batman, what was it like the first time you were implanted?"

Batman looked over at me, and I guess realization dawned on him that I was another soul. "Well, when I first woke up, I remembered Billy's final days. Infuriated, he decided to head back to work to get some extra hours and commission, but when he got there, his boss was waiting for him outside. His boss wanted to talk to him in his office. He seemed pleased about something, so Billy thought this had to mean he was getting a bonus or a promotion. Still, there was something oddly different about the man. He shrugged and followed him to the office. When he got there, the Seekers injected him with Knock Out, a drug used to induce sleep.

The next thing I remembered was waking up at a local hospital in my new body. As soon as I was free to go, I looked in the mirror and couldn't complain about my new appearance. Then I felt the presence of the previous owner of my body, but he was so weak minded, erasing him was a piece of cake. A picture suddenly came into my mind of a beautiful woman with short auburn hair and bright blue eyes, and high cheekbones. She couldn't have been more than a dream, then realization dawned on me that she was supposed to be my mate, and I remembered her name was Aimee. Immediately I remembered my mission was to go back home to her, find her and turn her in to the Seekers so that they could implant one of us in her brain. Then we could be the perfect couple. The trip back, I new would take at least a few days, but I tried to make minimal stops. As I was driving, I tried to remember more about her, so I could make her believe that I was her Billy. I remembered everything about Aimee, all the way up from the moment I met her. Soon the memories turned to horror, when I remembered how Billy used to treat her. I remembered causing those terrible burns on her beautiful creamy delicate arms. I remembered prom night, and then I remembered the moment I left the house, I had tried to do the unthinkable which was to end the poor woman's life." Batman looked at Aimee with a look of remorse and love, and she smiled lovingly and patted his knee for him to continue.

"So, all these dreaded memories were flooding in my head, and I began to take pity on her. It was a good thing that awful Billy person was gone. If I were a violent creature, I would have killed the bastard myself. At that moment, I made the choice that I wasn't going to turn her in, not after all the pain she had already experienced. It almost seemed cruel to turn her into somebody else. I thought of nothing but her until I was maybe a few hours away and I realized I felt more for her than just pity and sympathy. As I pictured her beautiful red locks of hair and the way her lips gently brushed up against mine, I knew that I was without a doubt in love with her. However, could she ever love me the way she loved Billy? Despite all the dreadful things he did to her, she still had an undying love and loyalty to him. I felt a sudden pang of jealousy for the undeserving jerk of a man. Surely she could learn to love me just as much. I would never again mistreat her in any way. I decided that I would treat her as nothing less than the delicate flower she was. Although for a flower, she must have been pretty tough to stick it out like she did. I finally reached the house. Where they used to live wasn't bad but it was definitely a fixer upper for a house. I figured with the job that Billy had, surely he could have afforded a nicer place. As I approached the door, I suddenly felt extremely nervous. My palms were sweaty, but as I opened the door, I saw her cower away with her suitcases all packed. She was getting ready to leave me, or him. I understood and I had to commend her for her bravery to finally stand up to him. I, however did not want her to leave. I couldn't lose her before we even got a chance to meet and talk, so it was then I revealed my identity. I first told her to give me her bags, and I didn't want her to leave. I told her that from now on, I would never again be the cause of her pain. She looked confused, so we sat down in the living room and I told her everything about me, the planet I came from, and why I had originally come back. She asked why I just didn't try to find a new woman, so I explained that I carried all of Billy's memories, thoughts and feelings. One of the strongest of his that I carried, and was stronger in me, was the undying love for her, and I knew I could and would not feel the same way about anyone else, not even if they did place a random soul in her. I knew too much about her, and not only the pain that she endured, just everything about her I loved." After he finished his story, all the women in the room including myself had tears in our eyes. All the other guys stared wide-eyed. Kyle just rubbed Sunny's shoulders affectionately.

Finally, Sharon spoke up after wiping her eyes, "So how did you know that Batman was telling the truth?"

"Well, at first I didn't, I figured Billy must have gone off his rocker," Aimee admitted, "So to prove that he was telling the truth, Batman told me to look into his eyes. So I did, and I knew there was something different about him. I remember Billy's eyes very clearly, but this time there was a thin silver line around his pupils, which I know Billy never had. That detail could have easily gone unnoticed by anybody else, but not me. I gasped and knew that everything had to be true, but at the same time I was frightened because that meant my world was being taken over. Over time, I learned to trust Batman, and he was basically everything about Billy that I loved without the hurt and the anger, the man I initially fell in love with. And over time, I fell in love with Batman. In fact, I realized I loved him more than I could ever love Billy."

"Did you two ever get married?" Mel asked.

They both shook their heads sadly, and Batman answered, "We both wanted to so badly, but by the time we thought about it, most of the world was taken over and it would have been too risky. However, we had kind of our own unofficial marriage, we both wrote down our lifetime commitment to each other like a contract and each signed it. We said our vows to each other, and we figured that that should be good enough to be considered a marriage in God's eyes."

After they finished the story, Aimee got up and gathered all of our empty dishes, then she looked at us, "Thank you all for listening to me ramble, but you all still didn't tell me why you were in my house." She looked down at the bag of stuff Ian poorly tried to stuff behind his back. "Were you going to steal from me?" She asked incredulously.

_Well that's the end of the 7th chapter. Not much happens, but I really wanted to give a background as to how Batman and Aimee met._

_Again please read and review!_


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks for the encouraging comments! Yea, Billy was such a tool. But Batman is a sweetie and totally hot! I know I'm kinda slow of updating, but I've been trying to find a new job, my current job hasn't been giving me any hours this month. Also my Internet has been down, so I'm unable to post! Grrrr! Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter. Reviews and feedback are always appreciated._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters and the original Host. I only own the OC's and the plot._

Chapter 8:

_After they finished the story, Aimee got up and gathered all of our empty dishes, then she looked at us, "Thank you all for listening to me ramble, but you all still didn't tell me why you were in my house." She looked down at the bag of stuff Ian poorly tried to stuff behind his back. "Were you going to steal from me?" She asked incredulously._

Ian looked down at his pathetic attempt to hide the bag, gave up and held it up guiltily. Melanie spoke up next, "I'm very sorry Aims, we were all on one of our raids and we had no idea you were still human, much less that this is your house."

Aimee's facial expression was difficult to read. She had a slight look of confusion, but she didn't look angry, not that I could tell. I still couldn't quite figure out what she could be thinking. Finally she had a thoughtful look as she spoke, "Well, I know you would never do anything like that on purpose, but what I don't understand is why you would be desperate enough to raid other people's homes? How is it all of you managed to stay human anyway? Are there more of us left?" She then looked pointedly at Sunny and I, her eyes narrowed slightly but not the way Sharon's used to whenever she saw me. Instead, it looked like she was trying to figure me out.

Ian eventually put the bag of spoils down, "I'm really sorry, Aimee, Batman, I meant no disrespect and I'll be happy to return everything that we have taken from you."

Batman put his hand up in protest, "Don't worry about it friends, what's ours is yours. Besides, we could always replace those items. What interests us more is how you guys ended up here and where you all are staying?"

Melanie spoke next, "Thank you all so much! Again sorry, but we are kind of desperate. Times aren't as desperate now that we have Wanda and Sunny with us, because they have the ability to actually go into stores without making the souls suspicious. There are actually quite a few humans alive who've managed to not get caught by the Seekers. We are gradually growing a little more in number."

Just as Mel was about to continue Jared interrupted her, "Babe, are you sure this is a good idea telling them all of this? I mean, how do we know we can trust them not to go blabbing to the Seekers?"

Sharon was the one who answered the question, "Because I trust Aimee. I know she would never dream of betraying those closest to her. I think it's blatantly obvious Batman's not going to turn us in, because he had many opportunities to turn in his own wife and based on what they've told us about their relationship, he's not going to. He made it quite clear how much Aimee means to him, he would never want to hurt her by turning in her friends."

"What Sharon says is true," Batman said, "I now consider you all my friends as well, and I would hate to see any harm come to you. But I have to admit, times have been extremely tough for us as well. I'm not sure how much longer Aimee and I can even stay here. People are starting to get suspicious of us, because we've always kept to ourselves. The only times I leave the house, is to go to work every day and then I come straight home. Aimee only goes out if she absolutely needs to, like to get groceries and other items. Once in awhile she'll go to the beauty parlor to get her hair and nails done, but she doesn't do it very often and she exercises great caution. She only does it to prove that she's still a 'normal soul' and it gets really lonely living in total isolation."

"I'm sorry you all are having to go through this whole ordeal alone!" Melanie said, "But Aimee, how are you able to do everything without being detected?"

Aimee beamed, "Awe the magic of colored contacts!" she pulled two boxes of them out of one of her cupboards, "After Batman got rid of Billy, he wanted to leave the car sales business to become an eye healer and he is an absolute genius! In his free time, he managed to invent different kinds of colored contacts. He wanted me to have freedom without getting caught, so he made a whole bunch of contacts designed to look like the pupils of the souls. I have to admit, that was one of his best ideas because everyone thinks I'm one of them. However, like Batman said, this trick can only work so long. I will never be completely like them, because I'm not one of them. I'm human and Batman loves me for it!"

Just then I felt compelled to speak up even though I felt like it wasn't my place. Aimee was Sharon and Mel's friend, I was just an acquaintance, but I spoke up anyway, "You guys don't have to do it alone anymore. Why don't you and Batman come with us?"

"Where to?" Aimee asked.

"Back to the caves, there are still a lot of humans that have never been caught. We even met up with another group who lives in a different set of caves. We were thinking of staying with them overnight on the way back," I continued.

Aimee and Batman thought about it for a moment. It was Batman who spoke up, "Well, I know Aimee will have no problem fitting in with you all, but I'm not sure if the humans would be too keen to have me."

"Actually, there is another soul living amongst the humans in the other cave. They are very fond of him, just like we are quite fond of Wanda and Sunny." Sharon said looking down at her feet guiltily, "I have to admit, at first, I was very judgmental towards them, but now I regret those times I have spent in hostility. Had I stayed that way, I would never have had the blessing of getting to know them. And I'm sure everyone would accept you just the same…well almost everyone. My mother is still against having souls live amongst us." She said somberly.

"What?! I've always loved Maggie, she was very kind to me! She treated Mel and I like one of her own," Aimee said.

"Yea, well it's a long story, this whole Earth being taken over kind of thing really changed her."

Aimee nodded, "What should we do about the house and the rest of our possessions?"

We all thought for a moment, then Ian looked at his bags, "Well we found what may be most useful to us, but we still have lots of room in the van if there is anything else that you would like to take with you."

"Well, all we really want to take with us are our photo albums, clothes and toiletries."

"That's fine," Jared said, "We'll just wait in the kitchen until you all are ready. Oh, and do you have any more boxes of those contact thingies?"

Aimee looked at Batman, "Love, did you bring any boxes home with you?"

He nodded his head, "I have a huge case full of them. I never leave that stuff at work, in case others grow suspicious." We waited about ten minutes as Aimee and Batman just threw all of their clothes into garbage bags and Aimee grabbed a shelf full of the few albums she shared with Batman, including albums from when she was a child.

"Ok, we're ready!" they both chimed. With that, we made sure all of the lights were turned off, and all of the windows and doors were locked and sealed. We threw everything into the van. Once everyone took his or her seat in the car and Jared sped off not looking behind him.

*****

We had been on the road for about half an hour when Aimee spoke up, "So how did you guys come across Wanda and Sunny?" Melanie told her the whole story from how she was captured and I was placed in her body and how we hated each other at first to the part where her and Sharon didn't want Doc to kill me, so they came up with a way that I could be my own person. Kyle talked about how after I showed Doc how to extract the souls, he went to go find Jody's body, but she never came back to us after they took Sunny out. He went on to explain how he finally came to terms with the fact that his Jody was gone. Then he finally shared how during his grieving process he got to know Sunny more as a person. He discovered that the more time he spent with her, the more he realized that his love for Sunny was even deeper than the love he had for Jody in the brief period of time that they had together before the invasion.

Batman looked over at me incredulously, "So what made you decide to tell them our secret when you know that it is against our rules? Our kind would consider that traitorous."

I shrugged, "I guess deep down, I've always felt separated from our kind, one of the down sides of being Wanderer I guess. I've traveled so much that I've always just been a loner in a sense. When I started to live with the humans, I realized that it was wrong for us to have taken over their world. They weren't the monsters that I was led to believe they were. I didn't want to be a parasite anymore, but I didn't want to go to some random planet either. I honestly did feel like I betrayed my brothers and sisters when I first showed Doc, but again I reminded myself that I was no longer a part of my species."

Batman nodded his head, but didn't say anything. We continued to drive until we pulled up to a hospital. Jared announced that this would be a good place to raid for medicine and return the remaining cyrotanks. This time, we had the contact lenses that Aimee and Batman had packed. For this Job, Sharon and I were going to walk in and use some kind of story to steal the medicine. Melanie and Jared put on the contacts and would return the cyrotanks. Everyone else waited in the car, Kyle at the steering wheel ready to drive by and snatch up everyone in case things went wrong. Sharon and I entered through the main entrance, while Melanie and Jared walked around the back. Confidently, we walked up to the pharmacy. The soul at the front desk smiled at us, "What can I do for you ladies?"

I pretended to hack up a lung, "I need something to get rid of this flu that I caught."

"Sure thing, and what about you Ms.?" She said looking over at Sharon.

"Oh, I need some Heal, I have a nasty wound on my leg from hiking."

"Ok I have just what you all need. If you give me a few minutes, I'm going to write up a prescription in the back." She went into the back room, and from what we could tell it was huge with many boxes and bottles. Sharon and I saw that as our opportunity to grab as much as we could in the store and hide them in our bags. It was a slow day so we were lucky not to get caught by healers or other souls that may have walked by.

The healer came back out and sighed, "I'm so sorry ladies, but I need to check upstairs, I ran out of papers to mark which medicine I'm giving out. It's our way of keeping track of what we need. If you don't mind waiting about 10 minutes, I'll be back."

"Take all the time you need!" Sharon said casually. With that the woman smiled and left the pharmacy closing the door behind her. We waited about a minute before we both opened the back door and started grabbing various medicines we felt would be most helpful. We ignored the petty ones like fungus creams and things that wouldn't be very beneficial. When we were done, we rushed out into the main pharmacy. The Healer hadn't returned yet, so we took that as our chance to escape.

Melanie and Jared were back in the van by the time we arrived out of breath. We dumped our spoils in the back with everything else and sat down.

"Good job guys!" Brandt exclaimed as Kyle drove off.

Sharon, Melanie and Aimee spent most of the time catching up on what they had missed.

"So, what's it like living amongst a bunch of souls knowing that the humans were gone?" Sharon asked, "It must be pretty weird."

Aimee thought for a moment, "The house we moved in to was away from the people I knew growing up," she looked down, "Besides, when I moved in with Billy, I kind lost touch with everybody anyway. Batman suggested the move since the old place we were living had too many bad memories in it. He wanted us to start fresh, so that we could have time to get to know each other and hopefully I would grow to trust him. Basically, it was so we could start our new lives together without the pains of the past. I'd have to admit though with the other people, it was kind of awkward. Imagine having to pretend to be one of them every time I went to the grocery store, every time I went to get my hair done, just basic things. I have to admit, it's kind of nice not having to pay for anything anymore, hence the reason our house is so decorative. I suppose the cost of humanity is too much as it is. Eventually it did get easier, and I was able to fit in with them fine, I made many acquaintances, but still none of them I could ever consider true friends. There was too much risk involved, and I had Batman. He was enough for me. I only left the house when it was absolutely necessary. Despite how comfortable my new life was, you have no idea what a relief it is to me that there are still more of us around."

Sharon was completely amazed by the story, that Melanie smacked her upside of the head to snap her out of it. "Wow! To think! It's actually humanly possible to live among them undetected. I mean, I tried it for a while, but I couldn't do it for very long and I didn't have the tools that you did. So what did you do during the days you didn't have to go anywhere? It must have been maddening not being able to talk to anyone."

Aimee again thought for a moment, "Well, it was Batman who encouraged me to continue my education, since I never really got to when I was with Billy. Billy never allowed it. So I took a bunch of online classes that were out of state while Batman was working, and I managed to get my Bachelor's in Graphic/Web Design and my Masters in Business. I guess it doesn't matter whether I have it or not since it won't really be of any use. I did it more for myself than anything. I wanted to challenge myself by learning new things, and at least I am now educated. It sure beats watching TV all day." She looked over at Batman, "No offense love, but television sucks now!"

"Tell me about it!" Jared and Mel both said rolling their eyes.

"Awe, come on hun, everything has a happy ending, there's no sex, violence, language, drug or alcohol abuse," Batman argued, "In the end love always prevails."

"Ok, I'll give you that, some of those things were not necessary in old movies and shows, like the sex, drug and alcohol abuse. But a good action movie needs at least some violence and explosions, and come on what's the story line? Where's the plot? There has to be some conflict! They put me to sleep!" Then she added pouting, "Plus they got rid of 'Spongebob Square Pants,' that was my favorite cartoon!"

"I know, but babe have you heard all of the sexual connotations that are hidden throughout the show? Plus, there's an episode, where Patrick violently gets hit over the head with coconuts. It had to go."

Aimee rolled her eyes, "Well I'm sure a 5 or 6 year old watching it wouldn't get the sexual humor, besides I probably wouldn't let my kids watch it anyways. It was still funny as hell though!"

Batman sighed rolled his eyes and chuckled while Aimee continued to playfully pout. He looked at her, "I still love you though."

Aimee rolled her eyes and smirked, "Oh alright, you're ok too…" she winked at him "I suppose!"

"Just alright?" He asked sadly.

Aimee laughed, and leaned into him, "What do you think?" She asked as she pulled him in for a long passionate kiss.

"Ok whoa! It's getting way too hot in here! You do realize there are other people in the car and I am seriously at the risk of throwing up in my mouth just a little bit." Kyle said pretending to fan himself, "Do you guys need to get a room or something. I can pull over if we have to."

"Oh and you're one to talk!" Brandt teased, "Don't pretend that you and Sunny aren't all over each other like slippery eels every chance you get."

Sunny turned about 5 shades of pink. We continued driving for several miles after stopping for dinner, when Aimee suddenly asked to pull over.

"Guys, I'm not sure if it's something I ate, but I feel really nauseous and I think I'm going to either pass out or throw up or something."

Batman and everyone looked concerned, when Melanie chimed in, "Sure we can pull over, you're probably car sick. I remember you and I always had the tendency to get carsick when we would go on long trips together."

Kyle looked around until he found a nice shoulder to pull into. Aimee immediately jumped out of the van with her hand tightly cupped to her mouth with Batman following after her. She turned her back to us while Batman held her hair back for her. Everyone tried not to watch them. Even Kyle, Brandt, and Ian were starting to turn a little green. After about five minutes the couple came back into the car. Aimee looked like she was feeling much better although still very pale.

"You ok?" I asked.

Aimee nodded, "Guess it's been awhile since I've been in any vehicle for this long." Batman still looked concerned for her. Kyle promised that we would stop off at the other cave for the night and head back home the next day, to give us time to rest. We drove for about several more hours. Aimee was still not completely herself, but at least her color returned and she was laughing and talking with the rest of us. We had a lot of interesting conversation. Again, the human side of me felt slightly jealous of the memories that Aimee, Sharon and Mel shared that I knew that I just would never have, even though I still remembered everything that they talked about because of Mel's memories. Sunny and I listened with great interest. We had no idea how wild those three were together. They talked about the many times they would sneak out of their parents' houses to go to a cool late night party together. They also pulled countless pranks on Jeb because of his perceived craziness. They went all the way up through their high school years, it was then that Aimee became less and less a part of things when she started dating Billy and started to become part of the popular crowd.

Finally we pulled up to the other cave. It was very different from ours in the sense that there were weeds and grass covering the mountaintop. I also remembered from our last stay there, that it was not nearly as huge or as technically advanced as Jeb's. Kyle remembered where we parked last time, and followed the hidden pathway that led to the spot where we could obscurely park. We only took our sleeping bags and personal backpacks with us as we climbed up a few rocks to meet everyone. Jared knocked on one of the cave rocks and waited. I only hoped we weren't too late that everyone had already fallen asleep. We waited a few minutes before Burns greeted us into the caves.

"Welcome friends! It's great to see all of you again." He was looking in my direction as he spoke. Knowing how Ian would react, I politely nodded and followed everyone inside.

"I apologize if we woke you, we—" Melanie started to say, but Burns cut her off.

"Think nothing of it! We are always prepared to have visitors. We like to think there is always a spot for newcomers." He noticed the new people in our group and added, "I can see you do have some new people with you!"

Jared introduced Aimee, Batman, Sharon and Sunny, to Burns, "I'm so glad to have met all of you! If you would follow me, I can show you all where we sleep." We followed him into another chamber entrance, and we could see that the room was large enough for everyone to sleep in there. They were careful as to keep men and women on separate sides of the room. The guys quickly set up their sleeping bags and passed out fairly quickly. Melanie, Sunny, Aimee, Sharon and I quickly unpacked our sleeping bags and made one giant bed out of them, just like an old slumber party. Aimee still didn't look like herself, even though it was only hours ago that I had met her. "You feeling alright Aimee?"

Aimee looked at me and smiled reassuringly, "I'm much better, it wouldn't be the first time that's happened."

Melanie giggled, "Oh I remember! Whenever you got carsick, you were always such a sight." Aimee flung her pillow smacking Mel right in the nose. We were so tired from the drive that we soon fell fast asleep.

_8th chapter complete. Sorry for the gross lovely visual in there. By the way, I want to include Burn's group in the story a little, but I forgot the names and descriptions of the other people they met? If any of you know, could you tell me in a review or msg me? Thanks!_

_Again please read and review!_


	9. Chapter 9

_Thanks again for the comments as well as the constructive critism! Also special thanks to those of you who gave me info about the other characters. I'm thinking for this chapter, I want to dive into those characters a bit. Sorry it's been awhile, I had to take some time off from writing because finding a job and keeping up with my heavy load of school took up much of my time. _

_I also wanted to address some of the concerns of the readers. I know normally people wouldn't describe themselves as having __"long, golden locks." One thing you have to remember is that Wanda sees everything from a different perspective because she lives in human bodies, everything is still relatively new to her, and "Pet's" body was one of them. In the first Chapter, I wanted to communicate that she was still in awe of her new body and all that goes with it, and her angelic hair was one of her favorite features. I too struggled with how to communicate the point that she was still in awe about her new identity. In the future chapters, she'll kinda get over that since she'll see that body as hers. As for kicking Mel in the shin, that's probably as violent as Wanda gets, after being in Melanie for so long, some traits kind of rubbed off on Wanda, including some of Mel's sassiness. And to answer Miss Mouse, when I wrote the piercing blue eyes, I always thought that when the humans were waiting for their own souls to return, they were in sleep mode but their eyes could be open at the same time, kind of like empty shells. Idk, that's my weak sauce explanation :-) Anyway thanks again for the __reviews and feedback! That's always appreciated._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters and the original Host. I only own the OC's and the plot._

Chapter 9:

_Melanie giggled, "Oh I remember! Whenever you got carsick, you were always such a sight." Aimee flung her pillow smacking Mel right in the nose. We were so tired from the drive that we soon fell asleep._

_*****_

The next morning, I felt myself being shaken awake. I slowly opened my eyes and saw a friendly familiar face smiling back at me. It was Rachel, one of the women from the other group.

"I'm so sorry to have to wake you dear, but it's almost breakfast time and we have to make room for the tables. We generally put all the extra mattresses away at this time," she said with a thick Southern accent.

I got up with a start, "Oh, sorry."

"It's alright," Rachel giggled. I looked around and saw that Sharon and Melanie were helping to set up some of the tables. Sunny was wrapped in Kyle's arms, talking to Burns, but I didn't see Aimee anywhere. Rachel helped me up and I helped her move the bed out of the way before fixing the sheets, but my eyes were still searching for Aimee.

"Is there something the matter, Wanda?" Rachel asked concern reflecting in her brown eyes.

I shook my head, "I was just wondering if you happened to know where Aimee was. I don't see her anywhere."

"Are you talking about that pretty little red haired woman that's married to that soul?" I nodded, although I wouldn't have considered her little with that height of hers. Rachel's expression turned to a look of sympathy, "Oh the poor thing woke up early this morning not feeling very well and I took her to a cave that serves as our bathing room. She barely made it to the entrance before throwing up all over herself, and she's been in there the whole morning since. I brought over some of her clean clothes. Her husband's in there with her."

I immediately started to worry because she was sick the day before. Rachel saw my look of concern and smiled gently.

"Oh, I don't think it's anything serious, she probably just has some kind of little stomach bug. Nothing some extra sleep, medicine, flat 7-UP and some crackers won't cure. Lets go get some breakfast ok?" She took my hand and led me to one of the tables that the rest of our group was sitting at. They were all deep in conversation with Burns, Nate, and some of the others from these caves. Ian looked up at me, smiled and scooted over to make room for me to sit down. I was across from Sunny, Kyle and Kim and Rob.

"Well, look who decided to get out of bed!" Melanie smirked.

"Yea, thanks for waking me," I laughed lightly.

"Well I thought about it, but you just looked so peaceful, none of us wanted to disturb you. Sorry."

I laughed, and took a bite out of my toast when I saw Aimee and Batman walking towards us. Aimee sure had cleaned up well. I wouldn't have been able to tell she was sick had Rachel not said anything. The only giveaway was the tired expression on her eyes, which was covered by the makeup she had put on.

"Hi guys, lovely morning isn't it?" Aimee asked a little too perky with a superficial smile. Batman was obviously concerned about her, but he masked it with a warm smile.

"Are you alright Aims?" Melanie asked looking right through her facade.

Aimee's smile faltered a bit, "Well, earlier my stomach bug did return for a bit," she admitted, "but I feel a lot better now. So what are the plans for today?" she asked in a quick attempt to change the subject.

Nate looked thoughtful, "Well, ya'll are welcome to come hang out here for as long as you want, unless you have to be somewhere at a certain time. We don't have many chores that need to be done today seeing as how we practically finished everything yesterday."

Jared looked at our group, "I was hoping we could back to our caves before dark, but I don't see why we can't maybe play a few rounds of soccer and perhaps leave after lunch. What do you say? – That is, if everyone's up for it…" he said with a mischievous expression.

Melanie smacked him, "You know I love a good game of soccer." Everyone else agreed that it would be fun.

"Very well," Nate said with a smile, "Lets divide up into teams. Burns, I choose you to be captain since you can play a wicked game. Jared, you can choose someone from your group to be captain."

Normally Jared was usually captain but today he chose Melanie which was a nice change considering that when he was captain, Sunny and I were usually last chosen. Sunny never minded, because she didn't much care for the violence of being hit accidentally by flying soccer balls. Since I've had this new body, soccer has been a bigger challenge for me. I guessed Pet wasn't much of a sports player either. Regardless, Melanie was still nice enough to pick me near the middle since she knew I loved the game and I wasn't horrible. Surprisingly, I was the first one chosen for Burn's team, which came as a shock. Instead of seeing the same look of shock on Ian's face, I saw him trying to mask his annoyance with Burns. There are just some things I will never figure out about the human emotion especially when it comes to males.

Both teams were mixed, with some from our cave and some from the other cave. I was on the same team with Rachel from the other cave and Sharon. Aimee, and Sunny were on Mel's team. When we started playing, I discovered that Aimee was actually really good. She somehow managed to intercept all my passes and she scored a few goals. The way she played, I would have never guessed that she had been sick moments ago. However, she was no match for Nate and Burns. I was lucky to be on their team, they would have plummeted me. Burns got one passed Ian and I saw a look of peer loathing from Ian, which shocked and disturbed me greatly. I decided that that was a look I could not bear to see on his handsome face. The game continued and the scores were fairly close. We had originally decided to play up to 20 goals. We had one more goal to make before we would win. Sharon finally had the ball and she was up against Kim, who one could tell was very athletic. Somehow Sharon was able to sneakily get the ball around her and passed it over to Brandt. Kyle intercepted it and was kicking it towards our goal but Rob caught it and passed it back to me. I may have been more petite, but I was quick. I kept kicking the ball, but I saw I couldn't get passed Ian. He looked at me with a seductive expression hoping that I would somehow pass him the ball.

"Sorry babe, not falling for it," I said and I passed it to Burns in which he made the final goal winning the game. We all cheered, while Ian sulked. I walked over to him and put my arms around him, "Oh please don't sulk love, you know it's only a game."

Ian looked at me and smiled slightly, "A game well played Babe. _You _were amazing out there," he said squeezing my shoulder. He then looked over at Burns with a slight scowl, I just wish some other people would know their boundaries and oblige. I realized, he was referring to Burns paying so much attention to me by picking me first for his team. I rolled my eyes, "Come on you great useless thing, it's time for the victory line up." We lined up with our teams and high-5ed the other team, complimenting them on what a good game was played.

A few minutes later, lunch was finally served. The lunches in these caves were just as good as the lunches back at our caves. We ate a hearty serving of homemade chicken Pot Pies, which were amazing with the savory gravy and fresh ingredients. Given that this group was much smaller, there wasn't the need for the sophisticated appliances that we had available. We all talked about the game and about the rest of our plans. We also talked about the possibility of arranging for another trip only they would be coming to visit us. Aimee and Batman told a few people the shortened, sugar coated version of the story about how they met each other. The only change in mood was Ian sitting very quietly merely picking at his food. I just ignored him, because he was still sulking. As sensitive as I was to his moods, I wasn't about to let it bring me down. We were having a good time and as soon as we left Burns, I knew he'd be back to himself.

After lunch, we finished loading our van, even though there wasn't much that needed to be loaded. We hugged all our new friends and they wished us well. Ian even politely shook Burn's hand before we hopped into the van. After we were safely down from the mountain, Aimee passed around the contacts. It was then a mischievous look crossed over Kyle's face.

"You know guys, I was thinking. Wouldn't it be hilarious if we entered the caves and fooled Jeb into thinking we were all captured?" We all started laughing heartily.

"Oh Kyle, you're such a douche bag!" Ian said.

"Oh come off it Ian!" Jared laughed, "Could you imagine the look on old Jeb's face when he sees our eyes?"

"Or Maggie's!" Sharon laughed, "That would be classic!"

Melanie looked kind of concerned though, which I would never have expected, "I don't know about this guys, I kind of agree with Ian. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that I was implanted." She looked at me apologetically, "I mean, looking back, it wasn't that terrible of a thing, otherwise I would have never met such an amazing person. It's just that… I'm afraid that it would end horribly and the first people they're going to blame are Sunny and Wanda. They've never even met Batman before, so naturally it would be easy to say he was the seeker."

We all became very quiet. That thought never really occurred to us, and then Aimee spoke up.

"Well if that happens we could peel off our contacts and say just kidding! Then we could explain how these could help us in future raids."

Melanie looked thoughtful, but still concerned, "I still don't know about this idea. Although, seeing the look on Aunt Maggie's frumpy ol' face would be priceless!"

"Now you're talking!" Kyle exclaimed.

We drove for several miles, as I expected, Ian was his loveable self again and very animated. It bothered me that he couldn't have been as animated in the other caves. I would love to keep visiting them, they were great people, but not at the cost of Ian being irritatingly moody. I let out a sigh of disappointment, which didn't go unnoticed by Ian. He tried to stroke my arm but to both our surprise, I…I pulled away quickly. I read a look of pain on Ian's face, and immediately a wave of guilt ran through me regardless, of how annoyed with him I was.

"Babe, is there something wrong?" Ian asked.

I paused then quickly turned away in my seat, "I…I don't want to talk about it right now."

Ian moved his hand away, "Ok."

Sharon, Aimee and Sunny stared at us confused, but not wanting to press the issue they decided to continue their conversation. Instead of having to see Ian looking miserable, I decided to nap most of the way back.

_*****_

I woke up some time later feeling slightly groggy. I looked over and much to my relief, I saw Ian sound asleep. Most of the van was asleep except for Melanie, Brandt, Sunny and Jared, who was only awake because he was driving the van. Mel must have heard me stir because she turned to look at me quizzically.

"So are you going to tell me what that was all about earlier?" she asked, "Because in all this time that I've known you, I don't believe I've ever really seen you angry."

I shook my head and sighed, "I don't think it would be fair to Ian if I told you about it before talking to him." Melanie nodded in understanding. "I'm thinking I'm going to talk to him when we are back at the caves and can be alone. Don't get me wrong I do plan on telling you, since I tell you everything anyway."

Melanie held a hand up, "You don't have to explain yourself to me, I understand," she said with a smile.

"I will tell you one thing, I don't remember being nearly as moody when I was in your body. I did experience a lot of emotions, but that was only because of the situations we were in. In Pet's body… they seem uncontrollable."

Mel rolled her eyes, "Wanda, you've had this body for several months now. You need to stop referring to it as 'Pet's body.' It belongs to you."

I shook my head, "Sorry Mel, I know this may be hard for you to understand because you've only had one body. Because I have been in many different forms, and even when I was in your body, I couldn't fully say that any of them were _mine_, try as I might. They were missions, to become each animal, plant and person. I would stay until their lifetime ran out and I'd move on. Although I am becoming more and more attached to this one. This is the first body that I feel actually belongs to me, but I still experience all these new traits and emotions, some that I never even had when I was in you. So that's when I make the comparison."

Melanie still looked puzzled but she smiled and nodded in understanding. I looked through the front window and saw the vast mountains in front of us darkening with the pinks and the yellows of the setting sky overhead. I breathed in deeply, and sighed. We were home again. I felt Ian stir and he looked a little confused but almost immediately realized we were approaching the caves. He then looked over at me and saw that I had been awake.

Then I saw the pained look on Ian's face again, "Are you still angry with me Wanda?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes. It was hard to stay mad at him when he had that cute little sad puppy face, "Not really, but we'll talk as soon as we are in the caves and can have some privacy." In all honestly, the nap had helped me to cool down, but I still needed to talk with him about things. I had decided for myself (for once) that there are certain things I will not tolerate and his jealous behavior was one of them.

Batman interrupted our conversation when he asked, "Everyone got your contacts in?"

We all confirmed, except for Kyle. "I still don't quite get how these things work!" He said as one of his was stuck to his finger and he tried shaking it off.

Sunny giggled, "Oh give me them, I'll do it for you. Now lean back." In less than a few moments, Sunny got them in. We finally pulled into the parking area saw that Jeb was waiting for us. As soon as we got out of the van, his cheerful smile turned into a look of terror, and the color drained from his face.

"What the fuck? Oh no! Don't tell me, you finally caught them. Tell me who's your leader? Is it you?" he asked pointing to Aimee and Batman. We all tried stifling our laughs until finally we could no longer contain ourselves.

Jared finally shushed us and pulled Jeb aside to explain everything. At first Jeb didn't believe him until Jared removed one of his.

Then we saw Jeb's good mannered face return and he chucked a little, "Well, well, now, that is useful! Almost gave me a heart attack for a moment there."

Sharon went over to join them. She placed a hand on his shoulder lightly, "Jeb, we were thinking, it would be pretty funny to see everyone's expression if they thought that we got caught and implanted." When she said everyone, Jeb knew she was hinting towards Maggie.

Jeb chuckled, "That would be hysterical. I think it would do everyone some good to lighten up the mood a bit, especially that stubborn sister of mine. I'll go get my rifle."

A few moments later we all walked into the caves with our faces down looking defeated, as Jeb walked behind us with the rifle barrel jabbing at each of us. I was surprised at how good of an actor he was. "Come on now you good for nuttins, get in there you all." He then kicked Kyle really hard in the buttocks. Everyone but Sunny, Batman and I tried really hard to keep straight faces, but it was especially hard after Kyle yelped in pain. Jeb can kick really hard when he wants to. When we walked into the caves, I got flashbacks to my first times in the caves. All of the people, who stayed behind, stopped what they were doing and just stared as we all came in. The looks of shock quickly turned to looks of rage then malice. Of course Maggie was the first one to push her way to the front of the angry mob. She immediately gave Jeb an earful, it was hard to make out what she was saying with all her yelling, crying, loads of curse words and a bunch of I-told-you-sos. Every so often she'd point to Sunny and I, primarily I was the target of her wrath. She then pointed over to Sharon and crumbled to the floor. Jeb patted her on the back and then he looked over at us and winked.

"Ok you guys, I think we've tortured these poor people long enough. Why don't we let them in on our little prank." We all started laughing and everyone but us souls removed the contacts and showed everyone. Slowly the angry mob, looked relieved. Doc quickly made his way through the crowd, found Sharon, and wrapped her up in a tight embrace. Everyone else rushed to see the peculiar lenses. Maggie looked up confused then marched over to Jeb and smacked him on the back of the head.

"You think this is a joke? You had me scared half to death! You know what I think of scum like Wanderer and Sunshine…whatever! I swear to God, you can be so thoughtless sometimes."

Jeb chuckled, "and you can be so stubborn and close minded. You should thank your lucky stars they came up with a clever way to not get caught."

At that moment, she looked Batman square in the eyes, "And look, I see you've added another to your little collection." She clapped her hands, "Doc, you know what to do."

Doc stared at her annoyed still holding on to Sharon.

"No!" Aimee shouted, "Don't change him back!" Everyone stared at her in shock. They saw that she was just as human as they were. Aimee started to walk towards Doc to explain to him, but got extremely pale and collapsed to the floor unconscious.

_9th chapter finally up! Gotta love those cliffies! Again, I'm sorry for the wait. Let me know what you thought of their prank._

_Again please read and review!_


	10. Chapter 10

_Thanks again for the comments, let me know what you think of Chapter 10! Warning, this chapter may be on the mushy side, but it's still interesting if you have the stomach for it._

_Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters and the original Host. I only own the OC's and the plot._

Chapter 10:

_At that moment, she looked Batman square in the eyes, "And look, I see you've added another to your little collection." She clapped her hands, "Doc, you know what to do."_

_Doc stared at her annoyed still holding on to Sharon._

"_No!" Aimee shouted, "Don't change him back!" Everyone stared at her in shock. They saw that she was just as human as they were. Aimee started to walk towards Doc to explain to him, but got extremely pale and collapsed to the floor unconscious._

"Aimee!" Batman frantically ran over to Aimee and held her looking at Doc pleadingly. Everyone forgot about the interesting contacts and looked over to see what had happened.

Doc let go of Sharon and rushed over to Aimee, trying to bring her into consciousness. He glared at Maggie, "I'm afraid that's going to have to wait."

Maggie rolled her eyes, "Well, as long as it gets taken care of." Maggie then did a double take and looked at the figure on the floor again. There was something very familiar looking about the woman on the floor. "Wait a minute, that woman looks a lot like Aimee, your little friend who used to come over all the time," she said in a less hostile voice to Sharon.

Sharon nodded without so much as looking at her mother, "Yes she is, and the soul holding her is her husband Batman, formerly this douche bag named Billy who treated her poorly. Doc, you are to leave him as a soul. They are very happy together now."

Maggie was speechless, but before she could say anymore, Doc picked up Aimee and started walking in the direction of the hospital wing. He turned towards the group and announced, "Right now my main concern is getting Aimee over to the hospital wing so I can have a look at what may have caused this. Batman, I may need your assistance." Batman nodded and walked with him followed by Sharon and Melanie. Sunny and I looked at each other and decided to come to make sure she was ok.

While we were walking, Batman looked down sheepishly. "This has been happening pretty frequently lately." We all looked at him in alarm.

"How frequent?" Doc asked.

Batman shrugged, "At least once a day sometimes more."

Doc nodded and wrote it down on his clipboard, "And for how long has she been this way."

Batman had to think about it for awhile, "Well, I'm not sure exactly, at least a little over a month. I couldn't take her to a healer back home because then they would know she was still human. I didn't want them to implant her. I figured she would get better, but if anything, she's gotten worse. I'm not a healer, so I have been no use."

"I see," he said jotting down more notes. Sharon, and Melanie exchanged worried looks. Aimee couldn't die, not after they had just reconnected with her. It would be like losing their best friend all over again. I sighed, too bad there were no healers around. Things like this were trivial for our kind.

"Doc, will she be ok?" he pleaded desperately.

Doc shrugged, "I won't know until I have a look at her." We walked a few more steps and then he opened the hospital wing door. We followed him in as he placed Aimee on one of the beds. Candy was cleaning some of the equipment and smiled at us when we came inside.

Aimee stirred a little and opened her eyes weakly, "What's going on, where…" As soon as she saw Doc, she turned to him and grabbed his shirt roughly, "Don't you dare lay a finger on Batman or I'll—" Sharon shushed her, and pried her fingers off of him.

"It's ok, I told him not to change Batman. He's just going to make sure you're ok."

Aimee breathed a sigh of relief and lay back down on the bed. Doc looked at us and said, "You know, I think it might be better if you all just wait outside and I'll call you when I'm done."

Melanie, Sunny and I headed for the door, but Batman stayed behind, "Doc, do you might if I stay with her?"

Doc shook his head, "I don't think that would be a good idea. You're too close to her and I need to be able to examine her without her panicking. You're presence might make things harder."

"Come on Batman," Sharon waved for him to follow her as she blew a kiss at Doc and coldly nodded at Candy, as they walked towards the door. "Doc knows what he's doing, she'll be in good hands." Batman reluctantly followed her after giving Aimee a nice long kiss.

_*****_

It seemed like hours we were standing outside. Batman kept pacing back and forth, until Melanie had enough, "Batman, pacing isn't going to help things go faster."

"I know, but somehow I can't help but blame myself for all of this. I'm so worried about her. What if it's too late?"

Melanie stood in front of him, causing him to stop pacing, "Look, you can't keeping blaming yourself. You did the best that you could do. So stop torturing yourself."

Batman sighed and slumped down on a nearby rock. "To tell you the truth, Aimee and I have wrestled with the possibility that she may be dying," his voice choked as he said those last words. Sharon and Melanie looked concerned and tried comforting him.

"Babe! I've been looking all over for you!" Hearing Ian's voice I looked away from the group to see him running towards me, "I thought we were going to talk, next I heard that you were following Doc to the hospital wing."

I stroked the side of his face affectionately, "Sorry babe, I had to make sure that Aimee was alright, can we talk later?"

Ian sighed, and then smiled a little, "Sure thing." He started to walk away when Doc finally came out followed by Aimee. Ian decided to stay to find out what happened.

Aimee walked over Batman and they held each other. Aimee then planted the largest kiss on him. When they finally pulled away Batman asked, his voice cracking, "So what's the verdict? Is she dying? How much time do we have left together?"

Doc chuckled, "She's going to be just fine, but I think Aimee should be the one to tell you."

Aimee grabbed Batman's hands in her own, "Batman, I'm not dying, I'm pregnant! We're going to have a baby!" Aimee blurted out her face glowing.

"Your, your pregnant? I'm-I'm-I'm going to be a father?" He stammered.

Aimee nodded excitedly, "Apparently three months! And all of those times that I've been nauseous, that's just the morning sickness which is very common in pregnancy."

"That's wonderful!" He exclaimed scooping her up in her arms. Realizing that he needed to be careful, he put her back down, "Sorry babe, I hope I didn't hurt him or her."

Aimee laughed, "It's ok darling, picking me up isn't going to do anything. I can still do the same things I did before, I just have to be more careful when it comes to lifting things and overly strenuous exercises."

At that moment, Sharon, Melanie, Sunny and I all ran over to Aimee practically smothering her with our hugs.

"Oh my gosh! Thank God you're alright, and congratulations!" Melanie said.

"Yea, I'm very happy for you!" Sharon said excitedly, "Does this make us aunties?"

Aimee grinned, "Of course, you know I have always considered you and Mel my adopted sisters, but it also looks like I have two more," she said nodding to Sunny and I.

Sunny and I both beamed at her.

Doc then questioned the happy couple, "But didn't the thought of pregnancy ever occur to you in the months that Aimee felt this way?"

Aimee shook her head looking a little sheepish, "Well, Batman and I were both unfamiliar with how your kind and ours would be able to reproduce in this world. So I guess I just came to accept the possibility that Batman and I would never be able to have children." she shrugged, "After getting used to the idea, I realized that I was happy that we at least had each other and that was enough."

I laughed lightly, "Humans and Souls can reproduce just the same as when only humans reproduce. The reason for that is because when a soul takes on a human body, all of the natural body functions are the same and therefore act the same way. The only thing that is different is the mind and thought process, because we are implanted in the brain stem. Basically the only physical changes are the personalities and mannerisms of the individual. And the baby that Aimee will give birth to will most likely be a human."

"Now I feel dumb," Aimee said, but then smiled, "But I can't tell you how happy I am that I was wrong." She then looked at Batman and frowned slightly, "Babe, how come you didn't tell me this when I was grieving?"

Batman shrugged, "I'm sorry love, but I also didn't know. When I came to Earth and was implanted, I never really got much education about human interaction because they assumed that there were very few humans left to worry about." Aimee nodded, and then hugged her husband again.

Sharon grabbed Doc's hand as they watched the happy couple, "Well I guess somebody should tell Jeb. We ought to celebrate this wonderful news. And who knows, someday that will us," she said squeezing his hand.

Doc smiled at her with glee, "Is that what you want?" he asked.

Sharon smiled back, "I've always desired that. I just only hope that I can fix things with my mother before that happens. She's not too fond of you right now either."

"I'm ok with that," he said, "And she will eventually come to her senses, just like you finally did," he said nudging her a little. Sharon rolled her eyes and left to go find Jeb.

Ian and I also took this time as an opportunity to break away from the group. Everyone else was too busy gushing over Aimee and Batman that they wouldn't have noticed Ian and I had left.

When we finally made our way back to our room, I sat beside Ian on the bed, "Ok, you want me to tell you why I was angry earlier?" I always loathed using the word "angry," it just didn't feel like _me._

"That would be nice," Ian said a little sarcastically but still pleasant.

"Ok, I felt you were incredibly rude to Burns during our visit and I didn't appreciate that especially after he's been nothing but kind to us," I said.

"Kind to _you,_" Ian corrected me.

My eyes narrowed slightly, "And then your behavior the rest of the time there was unpleasant. You were very moody, and angry and I don't like that side of you because I don't understand your behavior."

Ian looked thoughtful and sighed, "I guess Souls find it very difficult to understand negative feelings, particularly anger and jealousy."

"Jealousy?" I asked. "Are you _jealous_ of me?"

Ian shook his head, "Of course not, I have no reason to be." Ian looked down, "I'm jealous of Burns," he admitted.

"Of Burns? What for?"

Ian sighed again, "Because… well he's a Soul."

"I don't understand. You want to be a Soul?" I asked puzzled.

"No, what I mean is, he's another one of your kind," he said looking into my eyes, and Ian continued, "It just seems like you would have more in common. It's like you both have this connection that I could never have because I'm a human. Then I see Burns paying you a lot of attention, more than everyone else, even Sunny. I think he may have developed a crush on you."

"So what?" I asked, "Are you afraid that I'm going to leave you for him?" realization finally dawning on me.

I saw pain in Ian's eyes as he nodded slowly, "That's it exactly. I guess I'm afraid of losing you."

I sighed, and rolled my eyes and figured I needed to clarify things once and for all. "One thing I have noticed from my experiences as a human, is that humans have such shallow views of love. To you all, feelings are fickle, constantly changing. Your relationships are just as disposable as changing a light bulb or a battery. Things aren't going well and you have disagreements, you all feel they may not be the right person, so I'm going to find someone better. Maybe you loved the person at one time, but feelings have changed and you know longer feel the same way about them. Instead of working through those tough patches, people leave and try to find better, and in the end they are still unhappy with themselves. With this knowledge, I'm probably more worried about losing you than you realize," I said looking at him pointedly.

Ian's mouth had dropped, probably because he underestimated how much Souls understand about human nature. Snapping out of it he said defensively, "Well, that's not true of me. My feelings about some things may be fickle, but I would never leave you."

I smiled, "I know you won't. You can also trust that I will never leave you and here's why, Souls do not act on pure emotion. We are extremely monogamous creatures in the sense that we strongly believe in keeping one mate for the remainder of the host's lifetime. Once we find someone that we are in love with, our love for them never goes away. We are devoted one hundred percent, it's like we imprint on them and nobody else can get in the way."

Ian looked at me incredulously, "But what about Jared? You seemed pretty gung-ho about him not too long ago, remember?"

I nodded, "Fair enough, I was in love with him, but I was also in Melanie's body and I only loved Jared because _she _loved him. Melanie was also very active in my mind, so our thought would mirror one another. I also had all of Melanie's memories with Jared. Left to my own freewill, I would have probably not given Jared a second look. I would have completely fallen head over heals for you the minute you showed interest in me." I could see that Ian still looked skeptical. "Look, to prove my point, as soon I was placed in Pet's body all past feelings of love for Jared were gone. True I still had Melanie's memories of him, but that was all they were. I was finally able to appreciate Jared in a healthy light. I knew that he was Mel's not mine. His feelings for me were also unreturned. He only kissed me because I was in Melanie's body and Mel was still inside. When I had a body of my own, I could finally be free to love you the way you loved me. You proved your devotion to me because you still held my container with my true form, while they were looking for a new host for me. I would have expected you to be disgusted or even try to kill me, but you didn't. Doc said that you held me tenderly and protectively of anyone who came near me."

Ian smiled, "Of course I did, because I loved the soul inside the body. I wasn't in love with Melanie's body. In fact, I didn't particularly care to know her because I knew she would never be you."

"See? Another factor is that love for us has to go both ways, which means our mates have to return our feelings, otherwise we have to keep searching. One-sided relationships never work. Now do you see why nothing could ever happen between Burns and I?"

Ian thought for a minute, then a genuine smile spread across his face, "It wouldn't be a two sided relationship because you don't return his feelings. You can't because you're with me and that means if he chooses to, he has to keep searching."

Beaming at Ian, I pounced on him so that I was straddling him. In that position we kissed passionately and soon we were proving our love for each other in the physical way.

_*****_

We would have lost track of time, if Melanie hadn't knocked on our door to remind us that supper was almost ready and we needed to start heading to the kitchens. Scary how it seemed like we still knew what the other person was doing. Looked like the showers would have to wait till after. Ian and I quickly changed into clean clothes. I brushed my hair a few times over and then we headed in the direction of the dining hall.

_10th chapter up! So based on what Stephenie Meyer had revealed about love in the Host, I decided to write my understanding of how Souls would view love and soul mates according to that. Ha! Ha! No pun intended. Should be an interesting read, would love to know what you think about it._

_Again please read and review!_


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